portable credit card terminal

mnoden

hi there
i am a gas engineer/plumber and am increasingly being asked if i can take card payments
can anyone tell me which terminal would best suit being out on the road and which is the cheapest to run
kind regards
mark

martin1018

Hi, and welcome to MSE - although not sure that I'm qualified to welcome you I have done so anyway!

If you go back to the list of threads page, on top of the list is a box 'search this forum'. Click on there and you can then search all the previous small biz threads. I know there are some as I'm keeping a watch on that sort of thing for my own business.
So far the best bet seems to be via the Federation of Small Businesses, or direct to a company called Streamline.

If I find that I'm going to need one I think that will be my first port of call.

Best wishes.

blue_monkey_2

You need to rent the line (like a mobile contract) from Thyron (used to be Vodfone but Thyron have taken over). You will be on a minimum contact term.

You need to have a Merchant Account for Face to Face Transactions and the money is paid into the Merchant Account and then they will put the money into your business account. This is usually deferred from 28 days (usually) but can be up to 6 month - especially for new accounts.

The you can either buy or rent a machine which will have to be a chip and pin machine. Thyron make these too, as far as I know Streamline to do not make one. It will be one of these, you can occasionally buy one 2nd hand but it is a hassle to get it changed over so be prepapred for this: http://www.adelante.co.uk/chipandpin.html Buying is expensive £500 plus VAT but at least it is yours. You need to use it somewhere that there is a good Mobile Signal for it to work though.

There is something called Taxipay that you might want to consider http://taxipay.net/ As you can take this via your phone.

If you rent a machine you will have to pay for machine rental, line rental, card processing charges, merchant charges, merchant set up fee and it will more or less equal the 6.5% charge depending on how much you are being paid anyway.

http://www.adelante.co.uk/mobilepos.html

greyteam1959

After 20 years with Barclays Merchant Services just moved thro these people.
Worth a look
http://www.acceptcards.co.uk/

Lizz01

Hi

I have a rented mobile card terminal and I have found the GPRS signals to be unreliable, despite all the providers promising coverage in 99.99% of the country. This then puts you and the customer in the embarrassing situation of the terminal saying the card has been declined. So if you are likely to be using it in any rural locations I would suggest that you use a Merchant Service that provides you with an old fashioned swipe machine as back-up in these situations. Barclays and HSBC were the only 2 I found that would do this

blue_monkey_2

I had the same problem Lizz, used to have to hang it out of the window to get a signal at the right time so the card would go through. You can get a booster ariel for them though. I hardly use mine now though.

bestyman

I am a plumber and take payments on my iphone. Works with other phones too.
http://www.adelante.co.uk/
Ask if you need more info.