Can Accepting Credit Cards Help my Business

Can Accepting Credit Cards help the bottom line for my firm?

As people and businesses trim expenses, you have to look for creative ways to keep your profit margins. In these difficult times, how can a law firm ensure that it will be paid for the legal work that it does?

A growing trend in the legal field is accepting electronic payment, credit and debit cards, as well as electronic checks. Having high retainers protect the firm, but it becoming harder and harder for the average client to write that check.

In a perfect world (for law firms) all attorney fee statements would be merely for the client’s information, with payment drawn from the retainer. But in the real world, a significant amount of the firm’s monthly statements goes to clients for payment, either because the retainer has been exhausted or the arrangement is that the client will pay fees on a monthly basis.

Most firms would never think to run a credit report on a client, but for a lot of situations what you are essentially doing is becoming a lender for a client, and many clients will let a month or more go by before making any payments. The firm could suffer a real loss if the fees go unpaid.

Given this reality, it is surprising that many firms still do not accept payment by credit card.

For most law firms, including virtually all of those that do business with consumer clients, there seems to be no good reason not to accept credit cards. If you would like to more about electronic payment acceptance please contact VPS at 866.637.6125 or sales@virtualpaymentsystem.com