Negotiating the rate with Squareup?

[Jprandss]

Hi All,

I have multiple retail shops which use squareup to take payments in person, the software is great and I like that its a single fee rather than a %, plus 20p for this, contract charges for that etc.

I have successfully negotiated with them a few years ago to a 1% fee, we turn about £1mil through them. We are expanding and will be taking more, and I would like to get the rate lower if possible, as always...

Is anyone else in a similar position and how low will they go? Last negotiation was easy as I knew someone paying 1% so they would match it. But maybe they will go a fair bit lower?

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

On £1m t/o, you would probably get under 0.5% with a proper merchant account!

 

[Jprandss]

On £1m t/o, you would probably get under 0.5% with a proper merchant account!

You are correct, but I would pay for software separately, and the headline figure is never the total spent. I would have charges per transaction, and we have average spend around £8 so a lot of those, terminal rental, and what was the killer for me- the hassle and cost of Worldpay compliance...

I calculated to closer to 0.9% with a 'normal' merchant, plus I am in a contract (which I just don't like), and usually have a terminal which is badly designed, hard to use and doesn't integrate well with software.

If you know of a solution that doesn't have those issues them I am interested, although I do really like the 'all in' cost of square, and their software is great. Not just compared to a 90's computer software great, but actually like something that Apple would come up with. Zero staff training to use.

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

but I would pay for software separately

What software - depending on your platform, these plugins could be free or a small one off payment

I would have charges per transaction

Not necessarily, it depends on who you speak to and how you get to them.

terminal rental

Use someone where you can buy the terminals. Or add it into your epos system.

With that turnover (on cards) you are in a good position to negotiate with several providers, but being a member of a business group like YBC or FSB can also get you advantageous rates/packages.

What is 'Worldpay' compliance? Do you mean PCI compliance? For most business it is a one off PITA, but worth it for the savings.

To save £5k a year, I would be happy to do quite a bit of work!

 

[RK Seamless]

Just chipping in here. I’d say with £1m t/o you’re in the 0.35-0.5% range for domestic debit, going with a provider like EVO for instance would allow you to skip the non-compliance fees as well as failed auth fees and likely to achieve a 1p per auth tx fee.

We’re recently launched in market for hospitality businesses, our viewpoint is offering flexibility for our customers with our POS linking to providers like EVO. The closed ecosystem of Square and Lightspeed is definitely causing merchant’s some pain. Feel free to check it out - seamlesspos.co.uk or DM me for advice if you like