CC Terminals

[Brian McIntosh]

In my quest for photographic domination I'm now in need of a credit card terminal to use in my studio. I've contacted my own bank to see how much they charge but does anyone know of a good provider with reasonable rates?

 

[Scottish Business Owner]

Hi Brian,

You may want to look at FSB membership as alot of people i've spoken to say that the deals you can get via them are far better than you can get via your bank. You need to be quite careful about these types of arrangements as i've heard horror stories about funds being held back for as much as 30 days and also others being required to put up security deposits.

Would be quite keen to follow this one through as I think this whole subject is quite interesting particularly if you can get to something that's really cost effective for small businesses.

 

[Brian McIntosh]

Strangely enough I've got an appointment with my bank next Wednesday and I'm due to speak to someone from the FSB next Tuesday. I'll take copious notes and report back.

 

[Adventurelife]

Current provider BOS £18.99 a month plus % that ranges from 1.5% to 1.8% depending on card type

Debit cards are a fixed price and work out much better value for us if people use them.

Paid in 3 to 4 days

They recently forced us to change equipment to the new mobile handsets and of course this increased the price. They did it but instilling high penalties if you did not move to new set up.

This year we have been given customers the option to pay by BACS. I a surprised how many have taken this route which is great news as it reduces our monthly credit card bill. Will never be able to do without cc terminal but it is encouraging more and more people are moving to online banking.

 

[Gordon N]

The other option is a virtual terminal from PayPal or similar - no/lower signup fee, lower monthly payments but you lose a bit on transaction fees. Becoming more popular all the time as you can use them for telephone/mail order transactions too.

 

[Adventurelife]

The other option is a virtual terminal from PayPal or similar - no/lower signup fee, lower monthly payments but you lose a bit on transaction fees. Becoming more popular all the time as you can use them for telephone/mail order transactions too.

Gordon

The reality is most consumers have not heard of paypal.Businesses yes but not consumers. We offer paypal and it is still under 1% of turnover and as you point out it is expensive. For some businesses it it an essential tool but a big hint

Give the customer any route they want to pay by as long as it is up front:drool:

 

[Gordon N]

The reality is most consumers have not heard of paypal. Businesses yes but not consumers. We offer paypal and it is still under 1% of turnover and as you point out it is expensive.

It actually started as consumer tool for use on sites such as eBay, it was only after it had been running for a number of years that they created a business account. From personal experience businesses are now learning to trust PayPal for business transactions, we use it as a cheap alternative to creating direct debits, by utilising their subscription functionality.

The beauty of the 'virtual terminal' is that the customer is none the wiser as to the merchant facility being used as they never need see a logo, screen or anything - it is the same as a physical card terminal, only displayed on a computer screen.

It was some time ago now that PayPal ditched the concept of having to have a PayPal account to make a payment, and I think that may be a contributing factor to it's growing popularity amongst the small business market. Fees may be higher than that of a full merchant account, but the lack of setup/maintenance fees and simple account administration make it attractive, especially if you are testing out card payment options and don't want any long term expensive commitment.

 

[Brian McIntosh]

Just spoke to the guy from the FSB.

Fixed Terminal - £14.95 + vat
No Joining fee
First three months free
No charge for calls

Because I would be a new customer and wouldn't know how much money would be going through the terminal yet the costs would be:

Mastercard and Visa transactions 1.95% - 2%
After a 6 month review these may reduce to 1.5%.
Debit card transactions - 30p
After a 6 month review these may reduce to 22p

They also have a deal with 123 send for mobile terminals which, for long terms rentals of minimum 36 months, is £22.50 + vat per month which includes GPRS line rental and all authorisation calls.

 

[paulmcd]

Gordon

The reality is most consumers have not heard of paypal.Businesses yes but not consumers. We offer paypal and it is still under 1% of turnover and as you point out it is expensive. For some businesses it it an essential tool but a big hint

Give the customer any route they want to pay by as long as it is up front:drool:

I agree with the giving the customer the route they want to pay up front. One of the businesses I'm involved in (Dirt2Clean) sells to both consumers and businesses.

We've found with a recent product launch that consumers are more than happy to pay up front using their debit/credit card using paypal as its a name they can trust and using their card online usually has protection with their card provider. In fact they are more inclined to use paypal than google checkout. I think to say that most consumers have not heard of paypal is stretching it a bit. We only introduced paypal following demand from customers.

I guess the important thing here will be more to do with the customers themselves. Businesses with a broad range of customers should be making an effort to segment their customer base, with each customer segment requiring a different marketing mix / process to meet their needs.

Business to Business we normally deal with credit limits, bank transfers and cheques (How can anyone still be using cheques? lol) -these are paid following work being carried out.

Business to Consumer we've got an 80/20 split, 80% use their card online through our portal and 20% rather pay in cash. Payments are collected prior to work being carried out or during the work being carried out.

So in repsonse to the original post about CC terminals, do you know this is what the customer wants or is it what you think they want?

 

[stugster]

Bri,

One of the things that annoyed me about the terminals/merchants is how long they can hold onto your hard earned cash. Some of them wanted to keep the money for up to 60 days. Most were 30 days.

I think this is in the event you have a charge back by the customer, but it's something to be aware of in terms of your cashflow.

 

[Brian McIntosh]

Spoke to HSBC this morning.

They have a deal for people who are new to card processing that's £250 to set up then nothing else to pay for the first year. This is for a tethered terminal. Once the year is up you can either walk away or carry on and then the terminal is £15 per month and the charges are 25p for debit cards and 2% for credit cards. These charges are subject to a bit of negotiation depending on how much money is going through the terminal.

As far as crediting the money to your account, my business is seen as low risk so it's around a week.

So in repsonse to the original post about CC terminals, do you know this is what the customer wants or is it what you think they want?

It's more about convenience for both the customer and myself. Having the ability to take cards before a shoot and when the customer orders pictures saves me having to chase them up and the money is in my account before I need to deliver anything.

 

[Merchant UK]

Spoke to HSBC this morning.

They have a deal for people who are new to card processing that's £250 to set up then nothing else to pay for the first year. This is for a tethered terminal. Once the year is up you can either walk away or carry on and then the terminal is £15 per month and the charges are 25p for debit cards and 2% for credit cards. These charges are subject to a bit of negotiation depending on how much money is going through the terminal.

As far as crediting the money to your account, my business is seen as low risk so it's around a week.

So in repsonse to the original post about CC terminals, do you know this is what the customer wants or is it what you think they want?

It's more about convenience for both the customer and myself. Having the ability to take cards before a shoot and when the customer orders pictures saves me having to chase them up and the money is in my account before I need to deliver anything.

Brian,

With the FSB, they set you up with Nat west Streamline and an account with RSB Worldpay, Normally once you have this set up, Your money goes to your chosen bank account within 3 days

Which is a hell of a lot quicker than some banks i know off. I had one guy in engineering, nothing special just general engineering, Barclays told him that they'd have to hang onto his money for 2 weeks because he was a high risk business :w00t:

Joined up with the FSB, 3 days max and his money is in his account.

People go to banks thinking that they'll be looked after, but in the real world they are getting ripped off, to me mate 1 week waiting for your money is far too much.

Secondly to save on a monthly rental, buy your credit card terminal yourself, Ebay have loads and in good nick, some even new and could save you ££££'s each month.

Gerry