Sunday League/Sports Club Subs Payments

Vini_2

I've been in/around sports clubs for a few years and as someone who despises cash, am looking for a way to take "online payments" for weekly subs.

I'm aware of SumUp/iZettle etc, and I'm aware of the ~2% transaction fee. But the club in particular is a 5-a-side footy team, which has around 10 payees each week, and about 6/10 would like to pay "digitally". I don't really fancy the hassle of lugging a card reader around etc.

I've just trialled Revolut.me this week, by sharing my Revolut link, but sadly the custom link is one use only and it would appear that having 3/4 people pay using my revolut.me link results in a block being put on.

Has anyone else found clever(er) ways of managing subs like this?

Daliah

If they could pay you by card, surely they could create Standing Orders, too? If that's not an option, would one of the Bill Splitting apps be of any use?

Vini_2

The ‘problem’ with SO is that it’s a bit antiquated. Some of the players are drop ins/one week wonders, and there’s just the general stigma of setting up a BT/SO being a faff.

The benefit of using the Revolut Link, is the ability to allow others to pay by CC/Apple/Google Pay. It’s so easy it can be done pitch side, painlessly.

I partly suspect there’s a general limit on the usage because they’re probably prepared to swallow the 1/2% transaction fee a few times. But clearly not as frequently as I want to use it…

Vini_2

Bill splitting seems to need the transaction to occur up front, and then having the guys as contacts (possibly with their own revolut accounts) to ‘split with’.

As above, with some being drop ins, this isn’t really feasible.

I appreciate I’m trying to bend something in a way it’s perhaps not meant to bend, but I can’t be alone on this quest.

RetSol

Mobile payments? eg Paym. 

Daliah

Check out Starling Bank. There is no limit to how often you can send a payment request

On-the-coast

you're not alone...
i run a very small 5/side group with many "ocasionals..." i feel your pain, and i too have tried various options.  TBH i prefer cash, a) because I'm fairly trusting... and b) i'd rather be chatting with the rest of the guys rather than messing around with payment devices.  But Covid forced me to change - when the pitch owners stopped taking cash.

I set up a new bank account (current account)...
I receive 1 or 2 standing orders into this account - from regular players 
i receive cash from about half the players
i bought a sumup device on special offer (for £15!), and linked it to the bank account.

with sumup i can receive contactless payments from phones (applepay/androidpay) or cards... and if the card requires a pin then there's a slot to read the card too.
the battery is outstanding... i charge it once every 6 months... and it's never dropped below 50% charge.
Sumup also offers the ability to creat links or QR codes for specific amounts (e.g. £5 in my case) which you can text to people or have them scan.  They will then need to go through the hassle of entering their card number / expirey date etc like any online payment.  I've not used this more than once - but it sounds very similar to the revolut and starling options described above.
Of course... it's not free, sumup takes 3% if recall correctly, but over the years I reckon i only have a 75% success rate with the guys who say sorry, no money - I'll pay double next week!

Good luck - and I'll be interested if anyone comes up with a better solution 
(and btw.. here's what i'd like to find:
- the abilty of a phone to act as a sumup style device (to read contactless cards... a bit of a long shot i think)
- the ability to pre-program our standard game payment (e.g. £5.00) into sumup for rapid successive payments.... although each individual transaction doesn't take long, you have to enter the £5.00 payment amount into your phone... which communicates with the sumup card reader, to be ready to read a card - which takes around 60 seconds beginning to end.  When you have half a dozen or more people waiting to pay you'll find that the first payers will be in their cars before you've finished with the last one - which isn't great if you're also trying to say something about next week's game!

Vini_2

Yeah, I'm thankful, in that I don't think it warrants going to SumUp/equivalent, and we operate on trust, so it definitely wouldn't be pitch side. The fact you need to enter £5.00 per transaction is also something that would annoy me, enough to prevent me going to that degree. I think we'd just stick with cash before going to that level.

The problem I have with cash, is that it means I have to physically pay it in somewhere on a weekly basis, which is a personal chore.

Where we're at now, those who despise cash as much as me can either pay by BACS or use my Revolut link, its just the Revolut link was a bit flakey yesterday when we tried, and their customer support was next to useless.

In terms of taking payment using a device on the phone. The apple store(s) do it, and in the early days, SumUp etc used to plug into now deceased 3.5mm jack port. So technology is there, its probably just time.

On-the-coast

Sounds like we’re quite alike (other than I quite like cash!)
the secret of my system is to have a float that’s big enough to reliably cover 1-2 sessions of payments. I’m my case that’s months as we pay local recreation centre once/month. 

So although I collect money weekly, I only pay monthly, and I don’t have to worry about every last player being up to date. Also I’m personally quite happy to take cash out of ‘the tin’ and transfer electronic cash from my account into the football account - a bit like having my own personal cashpoint. If I ever end up with too much cash lying around for comfort I could take it to the bank - but that hasn’t happened yet - restaurants / takeaways round here seem to appreciate cash…
I will take a closer look at Revolut - I do have a card / account - thanks

Vini_2

Yup, our cash float always covers the cost of a session, just in case the venues card machines are down etc.

I then cream off the cash takings "above that" and right now, the thousands of 1/2/5/10/20ps to make up subs that our guys have robbed from their kids piggy bank prior to arriving go into "my" coffee jar, that I never cash in. So I then have to transfer from my personal account to the club account to balance it. 

I dont use my Revolut account, so have effectively donated it to the football club. Just a little disappointed that the "Receive Payment" method doesn't seem to work as well as it should. (I'd happily allow Revolut to cream off the 1/2/3% payment charge if that is the limitation they're imposing!)

It would be nice to "Receive a Payment" direct into a vault too, as I could have a "Footy" vault and use the account personally (I guess this might be like Group Bill Splitting, but this seemingly requires all members to be on Revolut)... 

Maybe something to revisit in a year/two as Monzo/Revolut/Starling continue to develop.

Vini_2

I might take this over to the Revolut Reddit... https://www.reddit.com/r/Revolut/