Not Accepting Debit Creates A Big Inconvenience

Recently, one of our Canadian POS Corporation representatives was having a conversation with one of his clients. Having known this client for quite some time, they got to talking about recent events and various goings-on in each other’s personal lives. Interestingly, the client revealed that he recently encountered a situation with a local restaurant that shed some light on the entire credit card versus debit card debate.

The client explained that following his meal, he intended to pay with this debit card. The waitress informed him that the establishment only accepted Visa and cash. Not even another credit card would have been a valid method of payment. Understandably, our client was put off by this information. He was forced to take his debit card to an ATM in order to retrieve cash to pay for the meal.

“Firstly, it makes it pretty inconvenient to have to get up out of my seat to go and find cash to pay for my dinner,” he stated, “Secondly, I had to waste an extra couple of bucks paying for both ATM fees and fees that my bank is going to charge me. I was surprised. I’ve never had a problem paying for a meal with my debit card before. I actually thought all restaurants accepted them.”

And, thus, one of the major points about the entire credit card versus debit card debate is underlined yet again. As a Canadian business owner, you should be accepting both! Consumers have their preferences. Many prefer to use credit cards because they provide payment flexibility as well as travel rewards programs. Others – like our client – like debit cards because of the simplicity of paying with their own money.

When you provide the option to your customers, you provide satisfaction. Allowing them to make their own choices and not forcing them to choose payment options that they less prefer is simply better for your business. Consider the damage you may have done to the relationship you have with your customers when you insist that they choose another way to pay.

“It isn’t likely I’ll be back there,” informed our client about the restaurant who didn’t accept his debit card, “The food was okay, but not good enough for me to bypass the inconvenience they put me through. The first thing I thought was ‘get with the times people!’ I’ve actually heard of some places not accepting credit cards, but not accepting debit? That’s crazy.”

You don’t want people thinking you’re crazy, do you? Okay, you might not necessarily be crazy for denying debit cards. But research has shown that it isn’t the smartest decision to not accept debit. Not in Canada, anyways. Canadians are widely known as being among the biggest users of debit cards in the world. And Interac seems to know this all too well.

Their recent “Be In The Black” campaign is getting quite a lot of notice. Various commercials and billboards are encouraging Canadian shoppers to use their own money via their debit cards to pay for purchases. As a business owner, you’ll want to make sure that you are allowing your customers the ability to pay with their debit cards. Is there really any reason not to?

Contact Canadian POS Corporation at 1-877-748-2884 to begin accepting both credit and debit cards today!