Retailers and some lawyers have long known that credit cards create more sales and larger sales. Now, the Salvation Army has reported that their experiment with accepting sidewalk kettle donations by credit card from wireless credit card processing transmitters has been a success.

The Associated Press reported today, “Major George Hood, spokesman for the Arlington, Va.-based charity, said that the donation sizes are similar to online donations, which average about $75. CNN reported that the Salvation Army claimed that sidewalk donations increased from $1-2 paid by cash to $14 paid by credit card.

For almost any field of law, other than personal injury, credit cards can allow you to:

• Retain clients who otherwise could not afford an upfront retainer;
• Allow you to discount your fees less often;
• Reduce situations where clients are not keeping up with billing;
• Reduce the cost of billing and collections; and
• Improve cash flow.

Even business lawyers will benefit. I have seen many times when the owner or President of a small business would only use a credit card either to get mileage or because of cash flow difficulties in the business.

If your law firm doesn’t accept credit cards yet, you should spend an hour to open a vendor account now.