Accepting Credit Cards
TIDY offers affordable ways to accept credit cards from customers. Accepting credit cards via TIDY is the best way to accept credit cards, because:
- It's easy, typically less than 2 minutes.
- The first $100 in processing is free.
- Accepting credit cards automatically marks jobs as paid for you and the client.
- Clients can set up auto-pay for even easier and faster payments.
All accounts are instantly approved to begin processing transactions, and we will follow up on legal requirements to finish your account as you go. This way, you can get going right away.
You can collect payments from your clients for any completed jobs.
- Via Email - Clients can click on any invoice you send them by email, and pay via credit card that way. Learn more about invoices here: Invoices
- Via Link - You can send a link for client to pay via their Client Hub. This lets them easily pay via credit card. No logins are required. Learn more about Client Hub here: Client Links
- Via Phone - If a customer wants to pay via phone, simply use that same Client Hub link and enter the credit card where the customer would do so.
- Autopay - Customers can enable Autopay. When they do, you simply tap complete on a job and any amount owed will be automatically charged to the customer's card on file.
Both credit and debit cards are backed by banks, and they ultimately dictate a process for how all cards work. These are the high level steps:
- Basic Card Checks - We check that the basic details of things are formatted correctly (e.g., the expiry date is not in the past). There is no guarantee that the card itself is valid yet.
- Customer Authorization - Some banks, may prompt the customer to authorize credit card transactions by text or by entering a code on the bank's website.
- TIDY Fraud Checks - TIDY will ensure there is not a known high risk of fraud on the card.
- Banks Hold Customer's Funds - The bank checks for sufficient funds and if they approve, will hold the amount on a customer's account for you. This often shows as "Pending" on customer credit card statements.
- Final Charge - The banks agree to move money from to your account. This often shows as "Approved" or a final credit card transaction on customer credit card statements.
- Payout - When the money finally arrives in your account, it will automatically be paid out in most cases. Payouts . You can also request instant payout. Instant Bank Payouts
Declines & Blocks
Payments can fail both for good reasons (preventing you from chargebacks) and bad ones (losing business). We try to reduce the incidents of losing business from charges, while keeping fraud rates low. Charges that are declined most likely fail due to being "Blocked" or "Declined". In both cases, we will try to give you as much detail as possible.
While we let you get started right away, note that you will have to provide two kinds of information.
- You will need to provide bank information to get paid out.
- You will need to provide "Know Your Customer" (KYC) requirements for the banks. That mean that you will have to provide additional documentation as you go to ensure you continue to be authorized to accept credit cards.
We will guide you through these processes as we go.
- Refunds can be issued in the Client section of your app.
- You can refund charges made to your account, either in whole or in part, but no more than the original charge amount.
- Refunds use your available TIDY balance—this doesn’t include any pending balance. If your available balance doesn’t cover the amount of the refund, TIDY debits the remaining amount from your bank account.
- There are no fees to refund a charge, but the fees from the original charge aren’t returned.
- We submit refund requests to your customer’s bank the same day. Your customer sees the refund as a credit approximately 5-10 business days later, depending upon the bank.
- Refunds can’t be canceled after they’re issued.
- Disputes and chargebacks aren’t possible on credit card charges that are fully refunded.
Refunds can be sent back only to the original payment method used in a charge. It’s not possible to send a refund to a different destination (e.g., another card or bank account).
Refunds to expired or canceled cards are handled by the customer’s card issuer and, in most cases, credited to the customer’s replacement card. If no replacement exists, the card issuer usually delivers the refund to the customer using an alternate method (e.g., check or bank account deposit).
Banks take up to 10 days to process refunds. This can be frustrating for customers, who may reach out to ask you what is happening. Here are some possible answers:
- It is still waiting for the banks to process, and needs more time to show.
- The bank has processed the refund, but the bank statements sometimes have refunds that look like charges, it can be confusing!
- Some banks, in some cases, may remove the original charge, instead of showing charges and refunds as 2 line items.
- If you ever think it is not one of these things, and it has been over 10 days, contact us.
If it has been over 10 days since the refund, and a customer is still asking about a refund, we can give them a Acquirer Reference Number (ARN) corresponding to the refund. Your customer can then take the ARN to their bank, who can give them more information.
