A few years ago I had the good fortune of meeting Scott. Scott works for a local software company (Sage Payment Solutions) that offers credit card processing / merchant services. I can hear you now, “So what? Those people call me all the time.” Well I have a few reasons to feel lucky to know Scott. Here are the reasons I think you should use Scott at Sage Payment Solutions.

Wholesale Pricing
He sells his services to the banks, they turn around and resell them to you. In other words, he’s the wholesale source.

Low Pressure
You are probably sick of hearing from merchant service people. Maybe you’ve been burned by one. Maybe you have just started hanging up on them when the call. Scott is different. He’s been in business for a several years (significant in that industry), and he has strong values.

Online Integration Tools
Sage also has great tools for integrating payment within your website. I haven’t found an easier or more cost effective way to accept credit cards using your own merchant account. It makes a great alternative to PayPal.

Expert in Your Corner
Merchant services have some of the most complicated billing practices. It’s so easy to get fooled by someone who is showing you one number and not all of the hidden extra costs. This is why having Scott in your corner is such a great way to make sure you aren’t ripped off. It’s like having a mechanic you trust.

In the interest of full disclosure, I must let you know that I have incentive to recommend Scott & his service. He sends business to me, and I get paid a nominal fee per account I send him. It’s even more important to note that even without these incentives, I would still recommend Scott, all day long. I was sending him referrals for a long time and that is why he put me on as an affiliate to get paid, so you understand the order of things. I would suggest that you call Scott and have him review your credit card statements. He will be honest with you and let you know if he can save you money or not. You can contact Scott at 503-307-1331, or for more information look at his website http://ScottLongacre.com (Note: I didn’t design the site, it’s provided by his company)

The faxes come in as TIFF files that open fine in Microsoft Image Viewer. I didn’t need to set that up. When I clicked on the attachments they just opened. Some free services require you to use their software.

Note: I used to have another number, and I lost it. The reason is I don’t get very many faxes. If you let your account stay inactive for too long, you’ll get your number taken away. To make sure this didn’t happen I signed up for a weekly fax advertisement to come to my free fax number. This means I know I get a fax once a week, and that my fax number is staying active. I’ve included the link below to the one I use, but you can also just google “Weekly Fax Advertisement.”

http://www.busbook.com/busweekly.freesubscription.html

• Get 50% off greeting cards at OvernightPrints.com. Valid until 11/30/09
• Get 100 Free Business Cards at OvernightPrints.com – Expires 11/30/09
• HUGE Postcard Sale – Save up to 50% on all postcard orders- use POSTCARDSALE at checkout. Expires 11/30/09
• 25 free rack cards
• 25 Bookmarks for FREE – Normally $2.95!

If you are interested in trying vonage you can sign up through this link and get up to two months free (and I get two months free as well) http://www.vonage.com/friend/ Just put in my vonage phone number of 503-914-5990.

Two great features included… Ability to add email addresses directly to the an email list (without a confirmation), and 300 different email templates.

I’m sure you’ve seen this before. The things you should know… You have to pay for shipping (about $7 last I checked), and you have to pay more if you don’t want the name of the company on the back of the cards. Additionally, this offer has been so popular that the templates used by this company are very common and you are fairly likely to end up with a business card that looks just like someone else.

I suggest the other business card place I have listed instead, but these folks do a fine job. I only recommend the other because they don’t have as many sneaky sales hoops to jump through.