Enabling Credit Card Processing Through Handbid

This article provides information for how to make sure your site is set up to enable credit card processing, as well as a breakdown of the Financial settings options.

Before you can begin to collect funds and accept payments through your Handbid event site, you will need to make sure that your credit card processor is connected and enabled. Follow along in this article to learn how to enable credit card processing through Handbid.

1. To enable credit card processing through Handbid, go to the Auction Settings gearwheel and select the FINANCIAL tab.  
2. Make sure that, Enable Credit Card Processing through Handbid is selected. If this box is checked, users will be able to add credit card information to their account and make payments. You will also be able to charge a stored credit card within the Auction Manager if there are outstanding balances after your event.  
3. If you made changes to any of the FINANCIAL settings, be sure to click the green UPDATE button to save your changes.

Financial Settings Overview

• Require Credit Card - If this box is checked, bidders will be prompted to enter a CC before they are allowed to place a bid.  Credit cards will not automatically be charged so users can still pay with cash or check if they have a card on file. (NOTE: Enable Credit Card must be check to use this option)
• Require user to enter an Address to pay - If this field is checked a the bidder will need to enter an address prior to paying their invoice.
• Enable Winner Notifications - This will send a text message to your bidders with a URL to their invoice. If they did not win an item and donation items are available it will ask bidders if they want to make a donation.
• Spending Threshold - If this field is blank then bidders will have to enter a credit card before they are allowed to place ANY bid.  If you enter a value, bidders will be able to bid without a credit card on file until their total winning bids are greater than the spending threshold. For example, if you set the spending threshold at 100 bidders can bid on items without adding a credit card until total winning bids are greater than $100. (NOTE: Enable Credit Card Support and Require Credit Card must both be checked to use this option). 
• Allow Pledged Donations - This will allow your bidders to place a donation without a credit card on file. They can pledge a donation and their credit card on file will not be charged.
• Auction Premium - If you choose to enter a percentage here, this will be added to the total invoice amount for ALL bidders. This premium is added to the total amount (including taxes). 
• Currency - select currency for your auction. The default setting is the US Dollar (USD).
• Prompt Purchaser to Cover CC Fees - This will display a checkbox asking your bidders if they want to cover the credit card fees associated with their invoice.
• Enable this by default? - This will check the box to cover credit card fees by default. So instead of opting in to pay the fees, they will opt out / uncheck the box. The checkbox to cover fees will be checked by default.

Always remember to select the UPDATE button at the bottom of the page to save your changes.

Things to Consider

Here are some things to consider about our CC system. For more information on this, we recommend checking out: Pros and Cons of requiring a Credit Card to bid.

• You must enable this if you want to require a CC to bid.
• We offer this service as a convenience. However, we charge a 3.5% transaction fee in addition to a $.30 transaction fee on all funds processed using the Handbid CC system.