Do Food Trucks Take Credit Cards?
Do you often visit a food truck for your lunch and hate having to find some cash to pay? Perhaps you plan to make more use of them but don’t know if they take credit cards? Or if you can tip them?
Or maybe you own a food truck and want to know how you can get set up for credit card payments? Whatever your question might be, we have the answer for you!
Living in an increasingly cashless world, it can be frustrating needing to scrape together a few dollars to buy your lunch at a food truck. You find yourself wondering if they accept card payments, and most importantly, credit card payments.
But with so few food trucks having websites or social media pages, it can be hard to find out before you pay a visit if they will accept credit cards.
Riddled with the fear of not being able to pay for your hot food, you start to panic, avoiding the food truck and settling for a cold, limp sandwich for your lunch. Yuck.
Well, no more! Today we are here with all the answers you need! Keep reading to find out if food trucks take credit cards or not and everything you need to know about them!
Do Food Trucks Take Credit Cards?
Let’s get straight into it! Yes, food trucks can take credit cards! But before you rejoice, it’s worth noting that whether a food truck takes credit cards or not is down to the choice of the truck owner.
With more and more people opting to make card payments only, it is likely that popular food trucks will take credit and debit card payments, but we always recommend checking beforehand to ensure that they do.
There are still plenty of hot dog stands and small convenience stores that will only accept cash as payments, which can make many of us wonder whether our favorite food truck will take a card payment or not.
Thankfully, we are seeing more and more food trucks accepting credit card payments, so your days of counting dimes and hunting for dollars might soon be over!
These days it’s fairly easy for a food truck owner to have a mobile payment option and modern systems that will allow them to take payments via credit cards or debit cards with ease.
We always recommend checking beforehand to see if the food truck does accept card payments or not. This information might be advertised on the front of the truck, or if they have any social media accounts, you can usually find this information here too.
As a society, we are moving ever closer to being cashless, so for these businesses to survive, they will probably need to adapt to cashless payment methods, or at least advertise that you can pay by card to attract more customers and boost their business.
Although it isn’t always ideal, we recommend taking cash with you when you first go to the food truck and ask what types of payments are accepted.
Hopefully, you can keep your cash in your wallet and pay with your credit card, but if not, at least you will have the backup cash ready to purchase your meal! Remember, if you use your credit card to withdraw cash there might be a fee on this.
Always check beforehand to avoid any nasty surprises!
Why Do Some Food Trucks Not Accept Credit Cards?
So why don’t all food trucks accept credit cards? Well, the payment processors required to take card payments will charge a percentage per transaction. For small or new businesses these fees can risk damaging the business.
The fees can be quite high, and risk putting the food truck out of business. If you have a processing fee of 2.5% and a customer makes a $10 order, the food truck loses $2.5 in fees!
With profit margins usually being low on a food truck, it’s easy to see how food trucks could lose their business if they accepted card payments! Thankfully, there is a way around this. Some food trucks will have a minimum order value for credit card purchases.
Generally, you will need to spend $10 to use your credit card, which ensures that the food truck isn’t hit too badly by the processing fees.
How Can Food Trucks Accept Credit Card Payments?
We all know how easy it is to swipe a card and make our payment, but how does the food truck or merchant get the money? Well, it begins with a payment processor which facilitates the transaction, communicating with banks and credit card companies.
This all happens super fast, with the payment processor verifying the card details and getting permission to transfer the money before sending it along to the business’ account (the food truck’s bank account).
For a food truck to be able to do this, it simply needs a payment terminal connected to its point of sale system. You might have seen the small devices small businesses use where your credit card is simply tapped on top.
There are so many different options out there these days that you don’t need a bulky cash register and big machines to read a card. These smaller machines are ideal for small businesses like food trucks and are easy to install.
If that doesn’t seem right for your food truck, you can also take credit card payments online. There are plenty of online ordering platforms that allow customers to place their order online, select a pick up time, and pay.
As a business, you just need to be sure you can regularly check these orders and have them ready at the scheduled time.
Final Thoughts
And there you have it, food trucks can take credit cards! It’s always best to check beforehand to see if your food truck accepts card payments and to ask if there is a minimum spend in place to avoid disappointment.
Don’t forget, if you have a food truck, it is easy to set up credit card payments, just be sure to check the processing fees and consider how your business will adapt to cope with these.
