SumUp - referral code to yourself (free/cheap new card reader)

tommikka

SumUp users may be familiar with SumUps referral links & £50 bonus if your contact buys a card reader etc.

I’ve used that to create an additional account for myself to tidy up my payments for HMRC, I referred myself which gave me half price deals on the new account, but it also worked to be paid a £50 bonus on my original account

I’m small scale, nowhere near MTD, but on self assessment and a second SumUp business account will make my records tidier.

I was previously using the old SumUp lite handset via phone app until it died last year, and then as I have an iPhone can take contactless directly to my phone - but that way I cannot “insert card for PIN”.

With a referral code creating a new account gave me half price hardware, making a SumUp Solo viable at £48 incl VAT, which brings back the ability to insert card and has the bonus of its internal SIM (better chance of a connection getting through at busy events rather than WiFi / phone tethering)

30 days later (SumUp making sure that I don’t send it back) I’m pleasantly surprised that the £50 referral bonus still came through despite being the same person at the same address

Cost £48, bonus £50 giving me a separate account, a card machine, and I’m £2 up !

MyRealNameToo

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6667193/sumup-referral-code-to-yourself-free-cheap-new-card-reader

Just dont be too disappointed if they work out in the future that you have referred yourself and they claw back the monies.

Have never had a problem with our iZettle (PayPal POS now) card reader when tethered to our phone… we do have dual sims so can switch network if one has poor reception in the area of the convention centre we've been put for the Xmas market etc.

tommikka

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81989753#Comment_81989753

It won’t really matter if they do claw back the referral as I didn’t expect it to pay out for referring myself, and I’ve had it for a couple of months now wondering if they would

Usually I’ve been fine on the tethered reader, or direct on my phone app when the old reader died. The issue that has come up has been when everyone is taking payments and there are crowds also taking up network bandwidth, and direct card readers have got through (using just the transaction data rather than passing data from reader to app to SumUp)

It wasn’t worth paying almost £100 for a Solo to get the better chance of getting through but half the price brought it closer to the Lite price range

The referral bonus made it free. I have used my same name, address and ID validation so they’ve had open information from me over it

Grumpy_chap

I think, if SUMUP ever realise the OP has referred themselves, the penalty might not just be the recovery of the £50 referral bonus, or maybe they won't even recover the referral bonus. The real risk would be if SUMUP decide they no longer wish to have the OP (either old OP or new OP) as a customer and withdraw all service with immediate effect (or as immediate as the terms allow) from both OP accounts and blacklist the OP from obtaining replacement services.

Would that have any impact?

MyRealNameToo

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81990414#Comment_81990414

I'm not sure what "network" you are referring to? The other SumUp devices talk to your phone via bluetooth and your phone talks to the internet by wifi or mobile network.

With the new device it simply talks to the internet by wifi or mobile so the only two differences are skipping the bluetooth step (which doesnt really have a limited bandwidth but can suffer from interference) and the fact that mobile isnt locked to a particular network.

Personally never had a problem with bluetooth at a show but then I use Zettle which you can avoid the bluetooth step by using a USB cable which SumUp doesnt support. Plus the chances are if there are so many people that one network is having a problem then the chances are they all will be. Where things can be more tricky is general coverage, especially if you get the crappy stall in the basement etc, but then between my wife's mobile and mine we are on all three of the mobile networks so can switch between them as per the SumUp.

Ultimately if you are happy with it then great just dont think is a solution to the problem you are trying to solve for. Given its standalone where it is useful is if you have staff as you dont need to provide a phone/tablet nor ask them to pair it with their own device.

tommikka

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81990951#Comment_81990951

It will use the same mobile network as phones & tablets, (and can also be tethered to the app) but the extra element that I’m referring to with the network is that a dedicated device can run with a weaker signal and lower generation mobile frequencies as an IoT Internet of things device

It can be used tethered to phone apps as well, any could go down, but the direct SIM gives it one more route.

I also have a Zettle from before SumUp and still works, despite being years older than my Lite handset that expired