Accepting Plastic - Hand Held Terminals

[The Blind Man]

New poster, but have learned much by just browsing.

Anyway, to my question. Does anybody have any experience / advice regarding hand held credit / debit card terminals.

I am a sole trader, mostly carrying out work direct to the public in their homes. In payment for my service I accept cash or cheques ONLY for deposits and balances on completion. However I wonder just how long it will be before chip & pin truly makes the cheque book a thing of the past. Also the convenience of card payments may improve sales and encourage impulse buying.

I am with Alliance & Leicester Commercial Bank and have considered taking advantage of A & L Merchant Services. My turnover is just hovering around £60K - £64K, ie I'm not VAT registered, so is it worth it? I assume that there are rental fees, transaction fees etc. Are they prohibitive?

That's enough for now. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated, especially regarding how it may impact my business, good or bad and the pitfalls.

Thanks in advance.

Andy

 

[The Blind Man]

I should maybe clarify that I do not already have the ability to accept card payments and that I am 'a man with a van' so most transactions would be carried out in a customers home or business.

 

[alex4orne]

Have tried getting them to use an online service, where they can pay by credit card? I would have thought that would eb cheaper for you

 

[The Blind Man]

Not really that sort of business. Think of me as a plumber or electrician. I go to the house, do the work and want paying. The old fashioned way. I have a website just as a web presence, but I do not trade or sell on line.

 

[alex4orne]

You can still get them to pay via paypal possibly, used to be a courier and do the odd "backload job" thay dont even need a paypal account.

 

[Matt1959]

I'm in the same boat as you Blindman. Up to now I've taken cheques. Cheques are still the most preffered payment method for my customers (they never ask if I take cards) BUT I'm watching it closely because there is an aspect of my business that makes cheques tricky and I shall almost certainly go for a mobile terminal. I do laugh at people that won't sign up to a merchant account because of the £20 a month and transaction fees - for most businesses I'm sure the extra sales due to being able to offer a card facility far outweighs the merchant account cost and in any case you don't pay transaction fees unless you sell the product so unless your on a really low margin, its a no brainer:|

I'm guessing you sell/ fit blinds in peoples house? Messing about with online payments on the internet and Paypal just isn;'t the way people want to deal with paying imho. They're not ways I'd suggest customers pay me thats for sure...

 

[The Blind Man]

I never considered PayPal. I'll look into it though Alex, thanks.

 

[alex4orne]

Yes i understand the whole cheque thing. I always used to worry about it bouncing as its too late then. BUt I was just trying to help save some funds. Do any of the banks offer a trial of this sort of thing??

 

[The Blind Man]

Thanks Matt. I can't seem to draw the fees and percentages out of A & L so that is the first time I realised it was only £20 p/m. It is only occasionally it comes up as an issue and I have perhaps 'lost' one sale because of it. I think my margins would sustain it. Good detective work on what I do - made it a bit easy for you though I think!

 

[Calypso]

I have been given quote from HSBC for £27/month for hand held unit, or buy it out right for about £500.00

I'm meeting people next week to discuss next action.

 

[The Blind Man]

That's good info Calypso, thanks. I've just requested A & L to contact me to discuss it further. I'm interested now to find out what %age of a transaction value I pay. I may revisit this thread next week and let you know.

 

[Christiane]

I have a merchant account with Streamline and a mobile terminal with 123send. Mobile terminal is about £111 a quarter. I got preferential rates as I'm a member of the FSB. I think debit cards are £30p per transaction and 1.95% for credit card.
You pay set up fee with Streamline and then the monthly fees calculated from the transactions.
The mobile terminal uses the vodafone network. The customer keys in their pin or you can also enter the card info (I do this for telephone payments).
Ah and most important point, money gets into your account within 3 days (I'm also with A&L).

 

[Matt1959]

theres a company that actually supplies the mobile terminals, they offer deals on the terminal rental and resell the service as offered by the likes of Strealine (if that makes sense) I may have been wro about £20pcm for a mobile but £111 a quarter seems high. Also, theres a slidding scale of transaction charges from the merchant providers depending on your turnover and length of time in business.

 

[Christiane]

There's also this but don't know the charges http://www.chipandpinsolutions.com/index.php?view=70

I've had my 123send terminal for about two years, maybe it's due for a review to find a cheaper deal?...