Accepting card payments

UltraSoul

Hi im a newly self employed plumber.

I am trying to be more flexible on how customers can pay. I would like to be able to accept card payments, and was wondering if anyone has advice. I know there are many places out there that allow you to download a app, purchase a card reader ect.

But im not to sure who to choose or what would be the best option. I noticed that some places that provide the card reader say in the fine print that they charge to use there service, so will take a % of the transactions. Or Paypal offer a card reader, but i think i would then get charged to transfer the fund to my bank account.

can anyone offer me some advice?

pooch

UltraSoul wrote: »

Hi im a newly self employed plumber.

I am trying to be more flexible on how customers can pay. I would like to be able to accept card payments, and was wondering if anyone has advice. I know there are many places out there that allow you to download a app, purchase a card reader ect.

But im not to sure who to choose or what would be the best option. I noticed that some places that provide the card reader say in the fine print that they charge to use there service, so will take a % of the transactions. Or Paypal offer a card reader, but i think i would then get charged to transfer the fund to my bank account.

can anyone offer me some advice?

There's a charge for anyone that accepts payment by card.
You will need to consider carefully whether or not to carry that charge yourself as an ongoing business cost (and so effectively ask all customers to pay for it) or whether to just ask those customers that wish to pay that way to cover the associated cost.

I would go for a service that offers a bespoke card reader as you may find many customers uneasy if you expect them to input their security number into your phone after having read their card details.

phill99

Every time you pay with a credit ir debit card at a shop or restaurant etc the retailer, restaurant owner etc pay a fee (either a fixed fee or a percentage fee) to the company that handle the payment transaction.

Therefore if you wish to take card paymentd from your customers, you need to build these cists into your business.

I use Worldpay Zinc which is a system that takes payment via an ipad (they also do it on an android platform). It uses a card reader which is linked via Bluetooth to your device. The card reader is the bit that the customer inserts their card in and inputs their pin number. It then gets processed via the ipad app and the merchant. The money then appears in your account 3 or 4 days later.

I pay app. 2.75% per transaction which is paid via direct debit each month. There are no monthly charges.

There is a UK based call centre.

Its a very easy to use system

cornish123

worldpay zinc currently have their pin pad on offer for £39.99 and if you use the promo code HUDDLEBUY (not a referal code) you can get the rates of 1.95% without paying the monthly fee

never had an issue with them in all the time i've used them, and the fees of 1.95% aren't that high considering there's no contracts or monthly fees, like you'd pay on traditional terminals

you'd probably pay around 1.5% on a normal terminal, but then you'll have fees and charges of around £50 a month on top.

Its worth applying for one if you ever want to do 'over the phone' or 'mail order' payments, as you get a free virtual terminal for taking card payments for such situations, you can also send people links that take them to a pay to pay themselves.

a very comprehensive set of features for no monthly fees, paypal for instance charge £20 a month for the virtual terminal and have a higher percentage fee, and most other providers charge similar.

[Deleted User]

We've just tried iZettle, who have an offer on for a free card reader to use with your smartphone at the moment, and have been pleased with how quickly & smoothly everything went.

We only take occasional payments at events (so a little different from you) but as a normally cash business people where OK with us passing on the charges.

It may be a good way for you to try it out without outlay.
HTH

Mr_Poves

cornish123 wrote: »

worldpay zinc currently have their pin pad on offer for £39.99 and if you use the promo code HUDDLEBUY (not a referal code) you can get the rates of 1.95% without paying the monthly fee

never had an issue with them in all the time i've used them, and the fees of 1.95% aren't that high considering there's no contracts or monthly fees, like you'd pay on traditional terminals

you'd probably pay around 1.5% on a normal terminal, but then you'll have fees and charges of around £50 a month on top.

Its worth applying for one if you ever want to do 'over the phone' or 'mail order' payments, as you get a free virtual terminal for taking card payments for such situations, you can also send people links that take them to a pay to pay themselves.

a very comprehensive set of features for no monthly fees, paypal for instance charge £20 a month for the virtual terminal and have a higher percentage fee, and most other providers charge similar.

Be very careful using the "virtual terminal" worldpay do NOT like you using this as the customer is not present , I had a world of pain with them , they actually nearly lost me a huge job by putting an anti fraud hold on a payment for 3 months!!!! I would avoid them like the plague , use paypal or Izettle .

slink85

Mr_Poves wrote: »

Be very careful using the "virtual terminal" worldpay do NOT like you using this as the customer is not present , I had a world of pain with them , they actually nearly lost me a huge job by putting an anti fraud hold on a payment for 3 months!!!! I would avoid them like the plague , use paypal or Izettle .

its all to do with how your account is managed, and if things are out of the ordinary, just with any other payment processor

if there's suddenly a large CNP transaction it'll be flagged, and likely held, if you do a mix of chip and pin, and the odd CNP transaction that fits in with your usual payment amounts etc it'll likely go without a hitch.

Personally I usually process about 4,000 via chip and pin and about 1.500 via the virtual terminal and had no issues, with payment in my account 2 days later, well 2 and a bit (payment date - settled a day later - in your account the day after)

Mr_Poves

slink85 wrote: »

its all to do with how your account is managed, and if things are out of the ordinary, just with any other payment processor

if there's suddenly a large CNP transaction it'll be flagged, and likely held, if you do a mix of chip and pin, and the odd CNP transaction that fits in with your usual payment amounts etc it'll likely go without a hitch.

Personally I usually process about 4,000 via chip and pin and about 1.500 via the virtual terminal and had no issues, with payment in my account 2 days later, well 2 and a bit (payment date - settled a day later - in your account the day after)

Problem is , they just closed the account on me without any sort of notice , I actually had to ring them and find out what was happening with the missing payment , they then told me they had informed me , they were lying and backdated a letter to cover themselves .
My customer (a very well known charity) had to wait almost 2 weeks for a refund via their bank , worldpay were not interested in the slightest , all they had to do was check with the customer or myself regarding the legitimacy of the payment .
They are disgusting - so I still would avoid using them , liars and ignorant to boot .

Helen_Baldwin

We have a card reader from worldpay. They charge a % of a credit card transaction or a monetary amount for debit cards (10p I think). To my knowledge paypal have higher fees.

charlysez

I used intuit pay, you can get a card reader or log in via a computer/ipad no monthly fees, 2.75% per transaction. Nice and smooth for me.

mchale

https://sumup.co.uk/