A year ago the owners of Rudy’s Pizzeria decided it was time to do what many retailers have been doing for years: The 15-year-old restaurant that worked solely with paper currency finally decided to take plastic.

Josh Reese, manager at Rudy’s, said the decision to accept credit cards came after he and the owner, Chad Glazer, discussed the number of large orders they’d been missing out on because they weren’t taking credit cards.

He said it was inconvenient for a company to place a large order and then have to bring in a check, or to have customers walk to the nearest ATM to get cash to pay for their pizzas.

“They don’t have to carry cash anymore,” Reese said. “It’s all about convenience for them.”

But the convenience that credit and debit cards provide for customers comes at a high price for local retailers.

For each credit or debit card transaction made, Rudy’s pays a percentage in fees, based on the number of transactions made in the month.

On average, Reese said, Rudy’s makes 500 to 800 credit card transactions each month, which can be up to a quarter of the restaurant’s business. This means that each month Rudy’s is paying about $300 for those transactions, not including the cost for renting a card reader and other fees.

Sonny Patel, owner of Dunkin' Donuts, 521 W. 23rd St., accepts credit cards but on small purchases, he asks customers to look for change. Last week, he had a customer charge a total bill of 40 cents. Im going to lose money (on the transaction), but I have to take it," he said. "I cant

“At least we get the (receipt) paper for free,” Reese said.

The fees are more reasonable when customers are paying for large orders, Reese said, but it’s the small purchases – like a brownie, a soda or even a soda refill – that end up costing the business the most, as a percentage of sales.

Sonny Patel, owner of Dunkin’ Donuts on 23rd Street, agrees. Until a new contract took effect recently, he had being paying 35 cents per card transaction, on top of a percentage fee per sale.

Patel said that accepting credit cards used to be a choice many years ago, but since he stopped accepting checks, having a credit card machine became a necessity. While each electronic transaction costs him money, he said he would never discourage his customers from paying with a credit card even if they were only buying a couple of doughnuts.

While these local business are turning the other cheek when it comes to making their customers happy, other business are asking their customers to think before they swipe, and a few won’t even take cards.

A sign near a cash register at Hy-Vee Food Store, 4000 W. Sixth St., asks customers to pay with something other than credit cards so that Hy-Vee can keep their prices low.

“I don’t think very many customers understand that credit card companies are charging us a substantial fee,” said Shawn Brown, store director. “My take is that I’m going to provide low prices to my customers, and any way I can do that – to keep prices down – I’m going to do.”

But it’s not just retailers who sell small items who are reluctant to take plastic. With items ranging from a few dollars to a few hundred dollars, Cynthia Trask, owner of Blackbird Trading Post, doesn’t accept credit and debit cards because of the cost.

She also considers the cards dangerous.

“Credit cards are a vicious cycle for a lot of people,” she said. “I have lost some sales, but that usually means they couldn’t afford it in the first place.”

When she first opened the store, Trask opted to let her Christmas sales determine whether or not she would start accepting credit cards. When she realized she really didn’t lose much business for lack of a credit card machine, Trask decided to just work with cash and check.

Trask knocked on the wooden frame of her counter as she said she has only had a few returned checks.

Linda Cullinan, vice president of marketing for Intrust Bank, which provides credit card services for more than 5,000 merchants nationwide, including Rudy’s, has a few tips for merchants who are thinking about accepting credit cards.

If merchants want to maximize their sales, Cullinan said, they need accept credit cards.

For a new merchant, she said, starting out with a long-term contract can be a scary endeavor. Instead, she suggests that merchants look for a merchant provider that can offer them service on a month-by-month basis.

Cullinan warns business owners to be wary of merchant providers that promise an unbelievably low discount rate.

“If they say, ‘I can give you this really low, low, low rate,’ the contract is probably laced with hidden fees,” she said. “If it’s too good to be true, it probably is.”

Merchants also should be watchful of equipment prices, Cullinan said. Some providers will have merchants pay an excessive amount upfront for the equipment, sometimes with a 300 percent markup when in fact most equipment is sold for close to the wholesale price.