Card Machine

vics_1982

Hi All,

We have a small business selling paving slabs / concrete posts and fencing etc, we only accept cash or bank transfers at the moment but are getting asked about card payments more and more.

Can anyone recommend a good card reading machine that is mobile please?

A rough idea of cost would be great, out bank (Barclays) seem quite high

TIA,
Vics

Neil_Jones

some do it PAYG - iZettle for example.
https://www.izettle.com/gb

You can install their app on your Bluetooth enabled smartphone and use the card reader to take payments. Initially its free, you just pay for the card reader and there are no ongoing fees, they just take 1.75% of the payments you put through it so if you go for two months without any card payments, you don't pay "rental" for those two months.

c-m

One thing to watch out for with card/merchant accounts is the delay between a customer paying, and you getting the cash. With some of the new mobile payments, there can be a significant delay.

If it were me I go with Paypal since they are a big name all your customers will have heard of, so won't be fazed when you pull out this mini card reader. Of course, you need to choose something that suits your business needs.

It's a year old now, but this article covers some of popular mobile readers.
http://moneysavinganswers.com/business/mobile-card-readers-accepting-debit-and-credit-cards/

phill99

I have used Worldpay Zinc for a number of years now. No set up costs, no contract and no monthly fees. They charge 2.75% on each transaction and that's the only cost you pay. Some months I will have no card payments and other months 4 or 5. So this works for me. You have a card reader that is linked via blue tooth to your mobile phone or ipad.


I found it easy to set up and the customer support is uk based and pretty decent

Neil_Jones

Paypal might be the best known solution and maybe the quickest (if you do a manual transfer) but they're far from being the cheapest.

gravitytolls

Hi,

I purchased the iZettle, but I'm now worrying about the lack of receipts, but the cost of an accompanying printer is huge in comparison to the reader itself.

How important is the receipt do you think? Assuming there's a receipt for purchases via till.

Savvy_Sue

I'm sometimes offered the option of a receipt being emailed to me, can you do that?

Pennywise

gravitytolls wrote: »

Hi,

I purchased the iZettle, but I'm now worrying about the lack of receipts, but the cost of an accompanying printer is huge in comparison to the reader itself.

How important is the receipt do you think? Assuming there's a receipt for purchases via till.

I'd be very unhappy about paying by card and not being given a card payment voucher.

WibblyGirly

I email receipts to customers via my iZettle as the app allows this.

Percy1983

SumUp is the cheapest and the card reader is great.

Only 1.69% no rental.

https://sumup.co.uk/

The app lets me send receipt via email and/or text message, no customers have had an issue for this.

lon_don

Hi Percy,

Could you let me know how is the performance of sumup ? Is it working reliably day in day out, or does it experience downtime (that could last a whole day for instance) ?
I've been with wpz for 4yrs, got a promotional rate of 1.95% (no minimum volume) so not too bad, have gone thru at least 3 or 4 card readers (each time had to buy new card reader when old one broke down). But my 2 main gripes are: reliability can be spotty (service down, not accepting payment, could last for whole day; also not infrequently card declined at first try then accepted at 2nd try so time-consuming and annoying for client) + wpz does not take Amex (sumup does, right?).
So I'm now tempted to switch to sumup, for the slightly better rate, for Amex, and hopefully a bit better reliability. Will probably keep wpz as backup.
Thanks for any feedback.