Credit card terminals

jolsen

Hi,

I have a small business that relies heavily on CC transactions, my terminal charges are ridiculous (and pretty much doubled recently) but as I was fairly busy I put up with them. Now things are slacking off and I could do without paying €60 odd for the pleasure of looking at a illuminant box gathering dust. Although I find it useful for checking the time. :rolleyes:

Anyway I was wondering if there are any cheaper alternatives to just getting a terminal from a bank. I rang a few different banks but the savings are nominal, I have traditionally slack periods where I hoped I could send it back but they throw reinstallation costs in my face which amount to as much as me keeping it full time. I don't think a virtual terminal would be much use as about 80% of the transactions are with the customer present. Any ideas would be appreciated.

Pataman

I have just bought 2 off ebay to use in my shops. I am being charged 20 each rent per month on top of the charges. I should have them later this week and will let you know how it goes. The bank said all I will pay are the charges, obviously no rental, which I will then argue over.

MovieExtras.ie: Derek

Most of our transactions are automatically done through the Internet. Once a month we have a situation where the customer is present.

For these situations we use one of the old styled credit card machines, where you take a copy of the card on a chit and ask the customer to sign the chit. We process these throgh our virtual terminal on the Internet.

Don't know if the banks still supply these machines, though I have seen a couple of stall holders use them, so might be worth checking out.

Maybe the musem might have them

Columba Rad

Pataman wrote: »

I have just bought 2 off ebay to use in my shops. I am being charged 20 each rent per month on top of the charges. I should have them later this week and will let you know how it goes. The bank said all I will pay are the charges, obviously no rental, which I will then argue over.

I'd be interested to know how you get on with that

-Patrick

ScouseMouse

Me to !!!

Payzone have just introduced a 15 euro per month rental on their machines.

Pataman

The machines should be with me this week, the only problem i forsee is the programming. I asked ulster and they said no problem connecting them, but they will not program them. i might try a new merchant provider and see if they will do it as part of the changeover.
I got good value, 2 Dione Xplorer portable machines delivered for £122 stg about €145.
Will let you know.

jolsen

Let me know how you get on, I might take a look at payzone. Anything must be better than what aib are doing to me.

ScouseMouse

I am with Payzone and AIB.

The machine is Payzone at 15 quid a month and AIB are charging me then on every transaction.

I have a minimum spend of a tenner EXCLUDING cigs, lotto and phone credit.

Its getting so tight its debateable if its worth it anymore.

Dabko

As most our businesss transactions are online and over the phone, we only use paypoint as our payment processor - monthly fee of 10 or 12 quid for couple of hundred transactions. (merchant account elavon)
When we have customer in office or over the phone, we open up a manual payment window throught the paypoint website and process the transaction in real time. Simple and cost effective

Its the merchant banks that rape and pillage when it comes to charges. Tell them to stick the terminal and haggle the sh1t out of the rate you are paying on card transactions.

Bandara

superscouse wrote: »

I am with Payzone and AIB.

The machine is Payzone at 15 quid a month and AIB are charging me then on every transaction.

I have a minimum spend of a tenner EXCLUDING cigs, lotto and phone credit.

Its getting so tight its debateable if its worth it anymore.

Going slightly off topic....

It drives me nuts to see shops with the lotto, smokes, phone credit excluded from credit cards

Yes I fully accept that the margins are sh1te, and that its not ideal by any means. BUT, you are still making money on the transaction, by doing it you are REALLY p!ssing off your customers and you risk losing them for all their business.

I just think its incredibly shortsighted, someone buys €6 quickpick, 20 Benson, €20 087 and a €10 bin tag, hands you a credit card or laser card and you refuse to take it and they leave the shop swearing never to return.

Your gp on the above sale is about €2.95, the cost of you processing this via credit card is about 1.3% = 57 cent so your still making €2.38, or if its a laser card then you pay the 19c fee and you still make €2.76. I

I am by no means having a pop at you here superscouse, I just would be interested to debate what merits there can be to make people no longer shop with you and subsequently you lose the deli, coffee, confectionary purchases that someoe also makes when buying any of the above items (and I'd argue they make them more readily than they would if they were paying cash rather than their plastic).

I genuinely don't understand the thinking behind it.

fraggle79

A customer is a customer no mattter what, we too accept cards and I have to agree that the costs are gone a bit haywire but this is an expense and so can be offset against tax.
We are with Elavon, are AIB cheaper than this??????please let me have your thoughts.......................for what its worth I received a bill from our utililty company and they charged me €2.50 for sending me the bill. I phoned them up and asked for a credit. They refused and I still havent paid them!!!

MovieExtras.ie: Derek

Hammertime wrote: »

Going slightly off topic....

It drives me nuts to see shops with the lotto, smokes, phone credit excluded from credit cards

I went into a newsagents on Nutgrove Avenue, went to pay for a couple of items costing about €15 with a credit card, I was told that the minimum spend on a CC is €20. I said I don't have the cash and the assitant said that I could use the ATM in the shop with my CC.

I said that I would be charged interest on the transaction, and he said well there is a minimum spend and that is that.

So I walked out without buying anything, the shop closed down about two months ago. I wonder why......

dbyrne

the shop was paying over the odds for rent, about 3 times over the odds from what I hear, so when the recession came he was still paying over the odds and the margins couldnt cut it.

just started looking at this and got a quote of 30€ a month rent/minimum spend and 20c per laser and 3.5% for credit card from aib. i told them they were dreaming, who else is there that is good, doing to need it for a website soon also

PDD

A monthly fee for a credit card terminal is a shake down racket if ever there was one. Its not enough that they are making a profit from the transactions but knowing that you generally must have this at a POS they shaft you with a rediculously large monthly price.

If you have an iPhone or an Android phone (I think Meteor have them now) then you can bypass this using the following options:

http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/01/square-iphone-payment-system-gets-itself-a-website-showcased-in/

http://www.merchantswipe.com/

Handy if you already have a smart phone and a justifiable business requirement/expense if you don't already especially when you look at the monthly fee's over 2/3 years. I have not used these but I don't see why they shouldn't work for a merchant account based in RoI.

GerardKeating

PDD wrote: »

A monthly fee for a credit card terminal is a shake down racket if ever there was one. Its not enough that they are making a profit from the transactions but knowing that you generally must have this at a POS they shaft you with a rediculously large monthly price.

If you have an iPhone or an Android phone (I think Meteor have them now) then you can bypass this using the following options:

http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/01/square-iphone-payment-system-gets-itself-a-website-showcased-in/

http://www.merchantswipe.com/

Handy if you already have a smart phone and a justifiable business requirement/expense if you don't already especially when you look at the monthly fee's over 2/3 years. I have not used these but I don't see why they shouldn't work for a merchant account based in RoI.

They don't look like that accept Chip&Pin, which is not yet common in the states, so would be more attract a higher MSC rate here, and give rise to a greater risk of fraud and chargebacks.