Short Answer: That is what we are charged when a card is used. This fee is waived automatically when you pay via Zelle sending to a friend, mailing a check, or cash with local Houston, TX pick up.
Long Answer:
Honest Aloe is all about providing the best aloe with the best service at great value. We offer 4 types of payments; card, Zelle, mail in check, or cash with local Houston, TX pick up. To keep our prices as low as possible for everyone, especially our local pick-up cash paying customers, we add a small 3.5% electronic credit card processing fee to cover the costs associated with credit card transactions. This fee goes directly to the payment processors who handle secure transactions, ensuring your payments are safe, quick, and easy. By sharing this cost to only those who use the service, we can continue offering competitive pricing and top-quality service without compromising on what we do best. We appreciate your understanding and support!
Pros and cons to our payment methods
- Card Payment: it is convenient for you and allows us to get your order to you as soon as possible. These conveniences are not free, thus the added fee.
- Zelle: although a few more steps, if you select sending to a friend the transaction fee is 0! If you select sending to a business, you will pay your banks fee (if they have one) which may be cheaper than the credit card fee.
- Cash with local pick up: just a quick stop to an ATM, bank, or cash back at a gas station and the credit card fee is waived. You just have to be in Houston or passing through.
- Mail in check: takes a bit of patience, but the only fee involved is the stamp you put on the envelope. The credit card fee is waived. Just choose mail in check as payment at checkout, “place order”. You will receive an email confirmation with instructions. As soon as your check clears our bank, we will ship the following Monday and email you with the update. We highly recommend mailing out your check the same day you place your order.
Why do we not use Venmo?
We have attempted to use Venmo, however within 24 hours of allowing it as a payment method, we received several scam orders which took lots of remediation on our part to remedy. They also charge fees for each transaction. If you know of a solution to increase security and verification with Venmo please reach out and let us know! The less feed the better for you and us!
Why do we not use ACH payments?
We have attempted this especially with the appealing %0.8 fee that is charged per transaction. We soon discovered 2 major problems with this payment method.
- High fees for transaction failure and monthly service to use. The most cost-effective plans we found charge at least $4 every time a transaction fails. This means if there is a slight typo or left out number when you are manually entering your banking information, then the transaction will fail resulting in a $4+ charge. In addition, your order is further delayed in starting the process over. This is a steep failure cost we were not able to afford with honest mistakes and scammers who place orders with fake information in attempts to decrypt our banking information.
- Lack of privacy to our customers. During the ACH verification process, especially 1-3 day processing vs the 3-5 day processing, we as well as the processing entity can gain access to personal information such as the exact amount in your checking account, the last 30-day transaction history of your account, and other sensitive data. This collected data can be and is sold to 3rd parties. Multiple processing entities reported to us these steps are taken to decrease fraudulent attempts, and that up to 30% of all ACH attempts are fraudulent and will fail, which is why they gather more of your data to verify in attempts to decrease failed payments. We respect your privacy and autonomy, and this is not in line with who we are as a company or our values.
If you have any ideas or suggestions let us know! Greetings@HonestAloe.com