EPOS / Merch acc advice needed

goz83

I run a busy hypnotherapy practice in Dublin and wanted to get a mobile chip and pin card machine. Rang BOI who put me onto Elavon and was offered the GPRS model I could use anywhere in ROI for €35 per month (ex vat), plus 25 cent per laser transaction and 1.9% for cc transactions. The join fee was quoted at €199 and I asked how the payments could run through my website too. I was told that this would be a separate account and a new join fee. The new join fee was quickly scrapped when I said that's way too expensive. The quote was emailed through and I then saw that an extra minimum €30 per month would be charged for having the merchant account. Then the statement fees would be added, plus an annual €10 fee and all this doubled for the extra account for online transactions. It all just piled up and put me right off. The only thing the sales rep could offer was a reduction of the rental of the unit from 35 to 25 per month, but this still means a cost of €65 per month for one account and a further cost of €30 minimum, bringing the total to circa €100 per month for a few transactions.

If any advice can be given I would appreciate it. I am actually thinking if i set up the online merchant account and use an ipad to take credit card and laser payments, this might work out better. I would not need the mobile card reader and clients could pay with card in my office, or on my website. I could also take booking fees in the same way. I could use a printer for receipts or email them directly to clients email account. Does this sound like a good idea? I wonder if a card reader could be connected to the ipad for payment? PS---I have yet to invest in an ipad but I have been considering this for some time anyway.

goz83

Anyone?

chillywilly

I don't know if you have seen this thread, it might be of use to you:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056388619

Strings.ie

What about using a virtual terminal such as Realex offer. Its not as quick as a physical terminal but it does the job. You'll still need a merchant account but contact Ulster bank, they sent a rep out to see me and we were setup within a couple of weeks. AIB, who we have our business account with were crap.
Another option might be worldpay. They have a virtual terminal but you don't need a merchant account though they are more costly on their fees.

goz83

chillywilly wrote: »

I don't know if you have seen this thread, it might be of use to you:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056388619

Yes I did. Thanks for pointing it out though. I don't need anything to track inventory or anything. I just flexibility and the ability to take laser and credit cards without big monthly fees and two separate merchant accounts. I have been looking into the iPhone / iPad option, which I think will cover both bases. However, I am only seeing card readers and it does not say if a pin is needed to authorise a swiped payment. This would add extra security.

Owen

If you can hold on a while, iZettle should be launching here in a few months. They're already online in Sweden, and working brilliantly with smaller merchants. They make a chip and pin device which connects to your iPhone/iPad.

goz83

Thanks for that. Unfortunately I can't hold on, but I wonder if it's possible to use a swedish account with them and then transfer the funds over? My sister in law is swedish and my bother lived there for 8 years until last year. They still have accounts there. Probably wont be possible and i wish i could wait. I'm signin up for an iphone tonight.

HellFireClub

goz83 wrote: »

I run a busy hypnotherapy practice in Dublin and wanted to get a mobile chip and pin card machine. Rang BOI who put me onto Elavon and was offered the GPRS model I could use anywhere in ROI for €35 per month (ex vat), plus 25 cent per laser transaction and 1.9% for cc transactions. The join fee was quoted at €199 and I asked how the payments could run through my website too. I was told that this would be a separate account and a new join fee. The new join fee was quickly scrapped when I said that's way too expensive. The quote was emailed through and I then saw that an extra minimum €30 per month would be charged for having the merchant account. Then the statement fees would be added, plus an annual €10 fee and all this doubled for the extra account for online transactions. It all just piled up and put me right off. The only thing the sales rep could offer was a reduction of the rental of the unit from 35 to 25 per month, but this still means a cost of €65 per month for one account and a further cost of €30 minimum, bringing the total to circa €100 per month for a few transactions.

If any advice can be given I would appreciate it. I am actually thinking if i set up the online merchant account and use an ipad to take credit card and laser payments, this might work out better. I would not need the mobile card reader and clients could pay with card in my office, or on my website. I could also take booking fees in the same way. I could use a printer for receipts or email them directly to clients email account. Does this sound like a good idea? I wonder if a card reader could be connected to the ipad for payment? PS---I have yet to invest in an ipad but I have been considering this for some time anyway.

If you have a website that you take payments through, you are into 30 Euro for a merchant services account and you are also into around the same for Realex or whatever payment processor you go with.

If I'm out and about and need to take a payment off someone, I just pull up my website on the iPhone and create a transaction on the fly and take the credit card details off the customer.

Using it like this, it's just like a normal transaction through my website (cardholder not present), transaction. If you have a website that is set up to take payments, it shouldn't be a big job at all to get a page knocked together behind a private part of the site (protected), where you can create an order and take a payment from a customer off their credit/debit/laser card.

I did all this for my own site so just PM me if you need any advice...

goz83

Thanks HFC. I also need to be able to securely store cc info, because clients will be booking appointments, but no charge will be taken from their card until the day of the session. This means I can charge a cancellation, or no-show fee if the client does not adhere to the minimum cancellation period.

I had been thinking more and more about the iPhone/iPad option as a terminal, but I dropped into Compub in Swords yesterday to find out more. According to him, we are not set up in Ireland to use the iPhone/iPad as credit card terminals, which is very disappointing. I don't want to be stuck renting a CC terminal, but I also cant afford to wait indefinitely for our "always last" country to become capable of using the iPhone for a terminal.

It would be great if PayPal, or someone else provided a terminal, which acted as both gateway and merchant account on a Pay Per Transaction basis. This minimum fee and double account s***e p****s me off.

HellFireClub

goz83 wrote: »

Thanks HFC. I also need to be able to securely store cc info, because clients will be booking appointments, but no charge will be taken from their card until the day of the session. This means I can charge a cancellation, or no-show fee if the client does not adhere to the minimum cancellation period.

I had been thinking more and more about the iPhone/iPad option as a terminal, but I dropped into Compub in Swords yesterday to find out more. According to him, we are not set up in Ireland to use the iPhone/iPad as credit card terminals, which is very disappointing. I don't want to be stuck renting a CC terminal, but I also cant afford to wait indefinitely for our "always last" country to become capable of using the iPhone for a terminal.

It would be great if PayPal, or someone else provided a terminal, which acted as both gateway and merchant account on a Pay Per Transaction basis. This minimum fee and double account s***e p****s me off.

Realex have a solution for this called RealVault, which allows you to store customers card details securely on their server for future transactions. The downside of you using an actual payment terminal in your premises, in relation to your requirements as outlined above, is that if the customer does a no show on you, then you obviously can't take a card payment from them, as they haven't turned up.

If you did this through the web and took a payment from them when they booked, (even a part payment that you could keep if they didn't turn up), I think it would greatly reduce the instances of people not showing up for a start and then even if they did show up, you still have a part payment from them before they present at your premises for treatment, assuming that they might book a week in advance and you are on a 3 day payment cycle with your merchant bank.

I've done all this for my own site and have developed all my own software so if you need any help or advice just drop me a PM...

goz83

Thanks HFC. PM sent

have2flushtwice

goz83 wrote: »

Thanks HFC. I also need to be able to securely store cc info, because clients will be booking appointments, but no charge will be taken from their card until the day of the session. This means I can charge a cancellation, or no-show fee if the client does not adhere to the minimum cancellation period.

I had been thinking more and more about the iPhone/iPad option as a terminal, but I dropped into Compub in Swords yesterday to find out more. According to him, we are not set up in Ireland to use the iPhone/iPad as credit card terminals, which is very disappointing. I don't want to be stuck renting a CC terminal, but I also cant afford to wait indefinitely for our "always last" country to become capable of using the iPhone for a terminal.

It would be great if PayPal, or someone else provided a terminal, which acted as both gateway and merchant account on a Pay Per Transaction basis. This minimum fee and double account s***e p****s me off.

Goz check around a few more places, its possible that we may be setup, but in my experience the "experts" behind the sales counter can be less than well informed.

DubPerryman

goz83 wrote: »

PS---I have yet to invest in an ipad but I have been considering this for some time anyway.

Hi Goz, it might be a bit late now, but I've only just seen your post.

You should look to use Payjack - http://www.payjack.ie/

You can process card payment on iPhones, iPads, Androids and laptops.

Best of all, it's Irish. So you can call them and have a chat ant time.

It takes no time at all to set-up an account.

TheWaterboy

Maybe I'm misunderstanding how the Payjack system works but there is no card swipe or user signature so surely this is counted as a person not present transaction. All the other companies insist on the card swipe and customer signature - the risk of chargebacks then is much less?

DubPerryman

TheWaterboy wrote: »

Maybe I'm misunderstanding how the Payjack system works but there is no card swipe or user signature so surely this is counted as a person not present transaction. All the other companies insist on the card swipe and customer signature - the risk of chargebacks then is much less?

Visa Europe does not approve mobile payment systems which have a swipe due to the investment which has been put in to chip&pin solutions over the past ten years or so. As a result of this, Payjack have decided not to launch a swipe device as part of the service.

iZettle are only really present in the Nordics and this is all I could find on the matter up there.

Dear iZettler,

We are sorry to report that based on a policy decision by Visa Europe, we have no choice but to stop processing Visa card payments in Denmark, Finland and Norway on August 1.

Please know that we will continue to accept MasterCard and Diners Club cards, so for now those are the cards you?ll need to ask your customers to pay with. We hope we can bring Visa card acceptance back to Denmark, Finland and Norway shortly and will of course keep you posted on the development.

Thank you for your ongoing support and use of the iZettle mobile payments service. We very much appreciate your business and hope iZettle will still prove a valuable service for you.

We wish you a pleasant summer and hope to be back to you soon with news that we?ve resolved this disappointing situation.

Best wishes,?Jacob de Geer, CEO

http://techcrunch.com/2012/07/30/visa-europe-not-squares-investor-visa-inc-puts-brakes-on-izettle-as-mpowa-expands-to-android/



I know mPowa in the UK had to come out with a similar apology, but I can't put my hands on the article at the moment.