05-27-2003 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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------------ MAY 1 1 2003 REQUEST FOR COUNCIL ACTION q , y qhono DATE: May 27,2003 ITEM NO.: Idu Department Approval: Name Gregory A. Gappa Title Director of Public Services Administrator Reviewed: Agenda Section: Public Services Director’s Reportn Item Description: Golf Course Credit and Debit Card Policy Introduction The Orono Municipal Golf Course does not currently accept credit and debit cards for the payment of fees. We are receiving more requests every year to accept credit cards as this form of payment is almost universally accepted at all businesses. All of the area privately owned golf courses and numerous publicly owned courses, including the Three Rivers Park District Courses, accept these cards. The ability to use a credit card is an expectation among consumers, and people get upset when they can’t use these cards at our golf course. We have people get mad and leave because they expected to use a credit card and did not bring enough cash or a check book to pay for their golf. 1 here is a great potential that these people will probably not come back to the course again as every year there are more golf courses available. The golf course business is becoming more competitive every year, so retaining customers is important. The golf course currently accepts checks, many people do use checks to pay for their golf, and we do receive bad checks which require time and effort to collect on them. One of the advantages of credit and debit cards is that they are electronically verified and payment to the City is made electronically from the card processing company on a daily basis. We have contacted several area card processing companies for quotations, and they all have different prices for the purchase of the card processing machine and varying flat fees and percentages for the amount that is charged in each transaction. Staff Recommendation Our recommendation is to use American Credit Card Services Inc., Mound Mirmesota for the processing of credit and debit card transactions. The purchase cost for the processing machine is $500, the flat fee is $0.24 per transaction, plus 1.72% of the amount charged. For example the fee on a $20.00 transaction would be $0.58. These charges will have a slight impact on the golf course revenues. However, our recommendation is that accepting these cards is necessary to be a customer friendly business, to compete with other area golf courses, and is an expectation among almost all consumers Page 1 of 2