Card Machines which Integrate into POS System

[EssentialParadox]

I’m looking to see if anyone has experience with chip & pin + contactless card machine providers who can integrate into POS systems.

Since we opened we’ve been using Mobi-POS and iZettle and it works really well… all we do is scan or enter all their purchases into the POS, then hit the ‘pay by card’ button and the amount shows on the card reader stationed at the counter. — Essentially, the normal shopping experience you’d get at most big brands.

However, the iZettle fees we pay still hover around the 1.3% mark and I am regularly receiving much cheaper quotes for card machine providers who can do as low as 0.3%, which would save us about £2,000+ per year.

The problem with switching would be that every single other provider seems to only offer card reader options that would require our staff to manually type in the amount to take. We do a high enough volume of customers that this would create a substantial log jam at checkout, not to mention issues relating to printing out, retaining, and reconciling all the transaction receipts, and also the PCI compliance crap we currently can bypass with a direct link from POS to card machine.

So it would save us money, but would be several huge steps backwards in terms of convenience and in how streamlined our checkout process is with customers, so I’m very torn here.

I just wondered if anyone else has explored this at all or has experience with any systems which some larger chains use whereby they also have the card machines integrated directly into their POS system.

Cheers
Luke

 

[ecommerce84]

Looking at Mini-Pos’s Website they don’t integrate with anyone who is likely to give you the low rates you are looking for.

We used to use EposNow, and there software would integrate with a lot of the Ingenico machines, which are common from most payment processors.

But the snag was that not all payment providers were compatible even though the machine was - we were with Clydebank and they weren’t compatible. I was looking for integration for similar reasons that you mention, and to prevent incorrect keying in from staff (although that was rare) and staff pressing the wrong ‘tender type’ when receiving payment, which was more common, and a pain when cashing up at the end of the day.

I think it would be worth having a look at the Epos software available and contacting the manufacturers to see which merchants and card machines they support. Or the other way round and approaching the merchants to see what software they support.

 

[EssentialParadox]

Thanks ecommerce84 — really handy info there. I will certainly look into EposNow and see what they offer.

Please let me know if you happen to find anything you think might be useful!

 

[Paul UTP]

Hi Essential Parado
IZettle and Paypal are great merchant services for the smaller business who don't process payments everyday. You do need to look at companies that offer the complete package (After all the paperwork has been completed, a 'Plug and Play' solution, and a machine that can integrate with POS). With companies that offer these, you do need to be PCI compliant and rent a professional payment machine, but they offer alot better rates.
Before you go and get quotes from companies, you will need to know:

• What is your annual turnover that you expect to put through your machine,
• What is your average transaction value,
• Will you be taking national only or international payments,
• Like a mobile phone contracts, what contract period will you be happy with. The industry average is around 4-5 years

The answers to the above will give the provider an insight to the best deal they can offer. <advert removed>