Fitness Clubs and Membership Billing
SPI will provide Cost-Saving Payment Processing for your Fitness Club for both Recurring Monthly Payments and Retail Sales. We receive many calls from people, like you, who are opening a new Fitness Club or have an existing club and would like to lower their payment processing fees. Fitness Clubs are different from traditional retail stores and need the help of a specialist in that field. We can provide that knowledge for you since one of the industries we have specialized in is Fitness Clubs since our inception.
- Fitness Clubs accept and process two types of sales.
- You may choose to open one or two merchant accounts.
- First, is a Monthly Membership Billing (EFT) account is the type every club needs.
- Second is a Retail Sales Account, you may or may not need to open this type account.
- Our Fitness Club specialist will help you make that decision. There are many things to consider
Your Monthly Membership Billing (EFT)
This will be your largest portion of credit card sales as your club grows. This segment will be processed once, twice or more a month depending on how you setup your membership billing cycle.
Since the card will not be swiped for each billing, these sales will go through as Manually Keyed Sales or Non Qualified. Many banks will just open a Retail Merchant Account and that will cause all these sales to be processed at much higher fees than with SPI. A merchant using a Retail Merchant Account must swipe the cards to get the best rate or Qualified Pricing. The correct category for a Fitness Club's Monthly Membership Merchant Account is the Direct Marketing Category. This category is used by Mail Order and Telephone Order businesses where all sales are manually keyed. In this category merchants are required to attempt Address Verification for each sale during the authorization process. Don't worry; we'll provide you with the complete information so your sales will qualify at the best possible rates.
- We will assist you in exporting and uploading your files
- Software installed on your PC
- Our Secure online Virtual Termnal
- SA Service Company that provides this service to many clubs
- We'll be glad to provide a list of solutions that will meet your needs.
Retail Sales
This is for in-club sales, such as initial payments, drinks, nutritional items and t-shirts. It will be the smallest segment of your credit cards sales. Some club owners decide not to open a retail account since this segment is so small. One way to process these sales without a Retail account is to add the sale amount to the member's monthly membership billing as a one-time charge.
If a Retail Merchant Account is opened you'll need one or more of the following items:
- Processing Software, a magnetic card swipe and a receipt printer for your computer. We sell these items.
- Traditional Credit Card Terminal / Printer that you may purchase, lease or rent at competitive prices.
