Free Now (mytaxi) payment

Away With The Fairies

I'm confused with how payment goes with booking a taxi through the app.

I have my card linked to the app and had no issues with paying through the app.

However, I was getting a taxi a few days ago and by the time I got home, they wanted cash. Luckily I had some money in the house but I've done away with using cash.

I had to get another taxi and booked through the app and payment was made with my card and I didn't have to do anything.

I have noticed that the bottom right hand corner of the app has the payment method. And I had to get another taxi and then payment by cash again, I cancelled this booking because is not my preferred method. I re-ordered another taxi and had no problem with card.

So this makes me think that payment method is choosen by the driver. But this is alot of hassle since I don't normally have cash and I was already caught out once.

Why aren't some drivers not taking cash?

...Ghost...

It's not a requirement for them to take card. They probably don't have card payment facilities. Taking card payments is not free. Would you be willing to pay an extra euro for choosing card payment?

L1011

...Ghost... wrote: »

It's not a requirement for them to take card. They probably don't have card payment facilities. Taking card payments is not free. Would you be willing to pay an extra euro for choosing card payment?

FreeNow handles the card payments inherently, and surcharging for card payments is illegal and has been for a while.

Del2005

L1011 wrote: »

FreeNow handles the card payments inherently, and surcharging for card payments is illegal and has been for a while.

Don't FreeNow take a percentage of the payment before they give the taxi driver their fare? So the driver only taking cash means that they make more.

...Ghost...

L1011 wrote: »

FreeNow handles the card payments inherently, and surcharging for card payments is illegal and has been for a while.

The point was that the driver takes the hit for a card charge. I would hazard a guess that they lose a bigger chunk through freenow card payments than just taking cash. I the consumer was asked to pay this fee, they might choose cash more often.

Take justeat for example. They started charging 50c for card payments via their system. This was flagged and they changed it to a service charge which included cash payments. Justeat take 10-15% of every order. Lots of takeaways had their own ordering website built and ditched the service fee. Having lower costs for their own website after the initial build cost allowed many takeaways to offer ongoing discounts for ordering via their own website.

In the end, the customer pays for the product/service as well as the cost of doing business. Card payment processing is a charge hidden in there somewhere. If the driver can make a euro more every cash journey, he will choose cash. If the fare was €1 extra for card payments, more customers would choose cash.

Ashleigh1986

The payment method is chosen by the customer not the driver .
Sounds like the driver changed HIS preferred method to cash over credit card .
At end of journey driver can change payment method from one to the other before he completes imput .
If this happens again ....
Just ask driver for a receipt ...all his details will be on receipt .
Send an email to freenow saying you wanted to pay by card and not cash and that you don't want that driver to pick you up again.
They may even give you a voucher for free taxi to compensate you for the hassle.

L1011

Del2005 wrote: »

Don't FreeNow take a percentage of the payment before they give the taxi driver their fare? So the driver only taking cash means that they make more.

They charge the driver whether it's cash or card

Scratchly

Driver mentioned to me before that it takes a while to get the money from the company. Its not a simple, get paid for a fare, withdraw money thing. Its paid out weekly or something.

So I would assume drivers only accepting cash prefer to handle their own finances, have cash to buy petrol etc and then pay a fee to FreeNow (dumbest name ever) rather than wait to get paid by FreeNow.

Ashleigh1986

Ashleigh1986 wrote: »

The payment method is chosen by the customer not the driver .
Sounds like the driver changed HIS preferred method to cash over credit card .
At end of journey driver can change payment method from one to the other before he completes imput .
If this happens again ....
Just ask driver for a receipt ...all his details will be on receipt .
Send an email to freenow saying you wanted to pay by card and not cash and that you don't want that driver to pick you up again.
They may even give you a voucher for free taxi to compensate you for the hassle.

No need for a receipt. All the details you need are in the app

davetherave

I had always assumed that a freenow driver that had to take payment however the passenger wanted (cash or card/voucher) through the app).

4.2 Unless stated otherwise in relation to specific SPSV trips booked via the FREE NOW services, the Passenger can pay the SPSV driver for the SPSV transportation services in cash or through other means of payment offered by the SPSV driver after completion of the SPSV trip. Alternatively, FREE NOW may offer Passengers the option to pay the SPSV Fares owed to the SPSV driver cash-free via the App using any of the payment methods offered (such as credit card), up to a limit determined by FREE NOW from time to time


The driver terms and conditions say payments will be settled within six weeks.


What can the driver see when they are offered a job, is it person is Davetherave, he is at the Army Barracks in Rathmines and wants to go to the Talbot Hotel Stillorgan. Can they see at that stage I'm paying cash, or card through the app?

Away With The Fairies

Ashleigh1986 wrote: »

The payment method is chosen by the customer not the driver .
Sounds like the driver changed HIS preferred method to cash over credit card .
At end of journey driver can change payment method from one to the other before he completes imput .
If this happens again ....
Just ask driver for a receipt ...all his details will be on receipt .
Send an email to freenow saying you wanted to pay by card and not cash and that you don't want that driver to pick you up again.
They may even give you a voucher for free taxi to compensate you for the hassle.

I'm sorry now that I didn't say I had no money and demanded to pay by card.

Edit: how come when I went to book another taxi, cash was the payment method? This booking I had to cancel. It only caught me out the first time because I never had an issue paying with my card before and didn't notice the cash method.

So it seems like the driver can choose the payment method from the start. Which seems very unfair as not everyone carries cash on them anymore.

Saudades

I don't think the driver can choose the payment method, but they can choose whether to only accept available cash jobs. Or only accept card jobs if they don't wish to handle cash at this time.

The app has a cash or card option but it's set to cash by default, even if you made a card booking last time. I suspect you thought you had changed this option to card, or that it was still set to card from the previous time, but wasn't, and the booking went through on the system as cash.

The booking would then pop up on all available drivers' dashboards as an available cash booking. So probably a driver who only wants cash bookings accepted your job and expected to be paid in cash.

Away With The Fairies

Saudades wrote: »

I don't think the driver can choose the payment method, but they can choose whether to only accept available cash jobs. Or only accept card jobs if they don't wish to handle cash at this time.

The app has a cash or card option but it's set to cash by default, even if you made a card booking last time. I suspect you thought you had changed this option to card, or that it was still set to card from the previous time, but wasn't, and the booking went through on the system as cash.

The booking would then pop up on all available drivers' dashboards as an available cash booking. So probably a driver who only wants cash bookings accepted your job and expected to be paid in cash.

Just went through the app there and set up my pickup address and drop-off address without going through with the full booking. But my card has been set by default.

The only thing I can think of is some drivers just want cash. But to go through with a booking and then find out that they want cash when they're only a few minutes away and you have to cancel on them. It's just alot of hassle. Has anyone else ever been caught out like this before?

L1011

Now that I remember it, I had a trip I'm sure I had very explicitly was for card, and got told I'd said cash - in August or so when we could do stuff. I actually had cash but usually wouldn't.

Darc19

...Ghost... wrote: »

It's not a requirement for them to take card. They probably don't have card payment facilities. Taking card payments is not free. Would you be willing to pay an extra euro for choosing card payment?

Lodging cash costs 0.45% - 0.65%

Taking a debit card costs 0.2% - 0.5%

Taking a personal credit card costs 0.5% - 0.9%

wyndham

99% of taxi drivers are on the PUP and are allowed to earn roughly €120 per week currently before it is stopped/they must sign off.

Thus, I would assume that drivers opting to be paid only in cash are attempting to keep their weekly bank transfer from FreeNow below that level.

Away With The Fairies

So this is my screen when I try and book a taxi (just not fully completed).

Down at the bottom of the picture is the payment by card and I didn't have to change payment method. This seems to be the default and I have to go into this payment section to change to cash.

I sent an email to freenow about this and I got nowhere. Apparently I requested cash method myself which I definitely did not. So it seems like the driver can choose the payment method themselves.

mgbgt1978

...Ghost... wrote: »

It's not a requirement for them to take card. They probably don't have card payment facilities. Taking card payments is not free. Would you be willing to pay an extra euro for choosing card payment?

The driver does not take Card payments himself with Freenow. He simply inputs the fare and the app takes care of it. He doesn't need any Card Facilities.

Del2005 wrote: »

Don't FreeNow take a percentage of the payment before they give the taxi driver their fare? So the driver only taking cash means that they make more.

Freenow take the same % from each Journey regardless of how the Driver is paid. If it's Cash the Driver has to input the Fare amount received. The Customer will receive a message as soon as the trip is completed showing the amount the Driver charged. If he has inputted a lower figure the Customer can (and they usually do) let Freenow know what happened.

...Ghost... wrote: »

The point was that the driver takes the hit for a card charge. I would hazard a guess that they lose a bigger chunk through freenow card payments than just taking cash. I the consumer was asked to pay this fee, they might choose cash more often.

See above. Same % regardless of payment method

wyndham wrote: »

99% of taxi drivers are on the PUP and are allowed to earn roughly €120 per week currently before it is stopped/they must sign off.

Thus, I would assume that drivers opting to be paid only in cash are attempting to keep their weekly bank transfer from FreeNow below that level.

The NTA released Survey figures this month which showed that 92% of Taxi Drivers stopped working at some point during the Pandemic, and that (at the time of surveying) 42% of all Drivers had not returned to work. 99% is a figure pulled out of thin air.



Freenow have the precise figures that each Driver earns with them (Cash & Card). They can, and do, give this figure to Revenue the moment it is requested.




Also, Drivers do not know the payment method being used until they have picked up the Customer. They can change the payment method at the end of the Journey, but it would be stupid to try to insist on cash when the Fare is listed as a Card job. The Driver cannot have any reason to justify this, as the App takes care of the payment. All they would achieve is a complaint from the Customer to Freenow concerning their behaviour.

It sometimes happens that a Customer who usually pays by Card can realise that their a/c is empty and will ask to change the payment method..... this normally relates to Debit Cards and younger Customers .