Chip n' pin service recommendation

[Naive citizen]

I'm currently with Streamline / Cardsave (taken over by Worldpay recently) and I've been with them for 5 about years now.

Something which I've always found a bit annoying and disruptive to my cashflow is the processing time for taking the money from my customer and crediting it to my bank account. Of course lower fees would be a bonus too.

In our modern fully computerised age there is no reason at all why card payments shouldn't make it into my business bank account within hours rather than the 3 to 4 days I seem to have to wait with Streamline.

So can anyone recommend a new firm to me who process and credit without keeping the money in embargo for several days between?

 

[LMDServicesUK]

If you already bank with RBS/Natwest rattle their cage as they can and do in exceptional circumstances offer improved settlement times as they are aligned with WorldPay ( owners of Streamline) by virtue of Streamline being an ex RBS company.

If this is a major issue for you your only option is to change your Bank account to Santander or Barclays and also use their Merchant Services as well (Santander - Elavon, Barclays - BMS).

That way you could get your settlement times down to 2 days.. However as to fees.. highly unlikely you would improve on your current package, more likely they would increase..

Remember Merchant Acquirers are Banks in their own right, and Banks like to hold onto your money so they can make some money overnight..

 

[Luke_fab]

If you want money straight in your account after been taken from customers I would suggest have a look PayPal.
From what I know money are in seconds in your PayPal account and you can use them straight away with PayPal card.

 

[Naive citizen]

So do PayPal provide a debit card machine you can use to take payment from customers. I'm a retail business so my 95% of my transactions are in person using a physical debit card.

I'm aware PayPal are fairly innovative so not a bad choice if they can improve on what I currently have.

I'm not certain but I'm starting to wonder if my current service is taking an extra day to credit some transactions (perhaps when particular cards are used?) It has always been 3 days after the date of payment but it seems (and this is what prompted the enquiry) that some payments are now taking 4 days (i.e. 5 if you include the day of payment) which is a bit of a joke really!

 

[LMDServicesUK]

You are correct you can now get a PayPaL physical card reader HOWEVER it charges a flat 2.75% per tx, there is no differentiation between card type, which if you are processing over £ 450 PCM a conventional Merchant account is safer and more cost effective.

Below that level WPZ is a much better alternative visit www.worldpayzinc.com and check it out for yourself, also Customer Service is far better than PayPal...

If you are seeing payments being delayed are you ensuring that you are undertaking your End of Day Banking before 1800 hrs on the day the transaction was processed, if you miss the Banking widow your payment will not be processed until the next working day. It is unlikely that the problem is due to the type of card being used unless possibly it was an international card of some sort.

Hope this helps

Mark

 

[Naive citizen]

Not sure why you are recommending Worldpay if the service I already have is Worldpay? I originally signed up with CardSave but they seem to have been bought-out by Worldpay.

 

[LMDServicesUK]

You said you wanted faster settlement times and were considering PayPal.. The WPZ solution is a far better solution all round than the PayPal offering.

If you are a Cardsave Merchant you are now a WorldPay customer..

My key point was both the PayPal and WPZ solutions are designed for merchants who t/o less than £ 400 PCM on card payments, that is the rough cross over point for PAYG solutions vs a conventional Merchant account such as you have.

Rgds

Mark

 

[Naive citizen]

I don't remember saying I'd be transacting less than £400 a month on cards? Many thousands normally.

 

[LMDServicesUK]

In which case switching to PayPal or WPZ would be pretty pointless as your charges would increase massively.. So as per my original suggestion if you want to get quicker settlement times, change Bank account as mentioned previously..

 

[Luke_fab]

Hi,

Have a look on https://www.payatrader.com
With your number of transactions I will recommend to talk to them about lowering their fees per transaction.

 

[Naive citizen]

This issue has come back up to the top of my agenda!

I checked my business online bank account today and found tomorrow that I'm expecting to see a direct debit for just shy of £100.00 leaving my account for card services this month.

Naturally I was curious to find out what reason Worldpay had for ripping me off like this so I phoned them up to find out.

To me that amount as a monthly fee, even if it is a one-off to cover their Christmas bonuses is unacceptably high for the simple benefit of accepting card payments.

It seems to me like there must be a way to avoid paying this much?

When I spoke to the guy at the call centre he started rabbiting on about PCI TrustKeeper scans or some bull like this. I was aware of the scheme coming into force and was told at the time that it would be a good idea to register to avoid paying the overhead fee I would be subject to if I didn't complete the extra security process. So I did that probably 18 months ago now. He tells me that I've got to complete another process online which will take about 20 minutes and at that point I just gave up.

I can't have card payment processing taking up this much of my time or costing me so much money, there must be some alternative. I'm of the opinion that biting the bullet now and going ahead with this latest set of requirements will not end the matter and further charges and further time will have to be spent on this at some point in the future. i.e. I'm not optimistic for the future.

Does anyone know if there is a comparison service available so you can weigh up the different alternatives for card processing services?

Maybe I should forget about it and start insisting my customers pay with cash only?

 

[Carl S]

I've used
pxp-solutions
cybersource
and
global payments inc

I found Cybersource and PXP helpful but cost wise I don't know how they would compare for you, we process around £12m a year so we get good rates.

In all cases we use our bank HSBC as the acquirer still (global pay is their product), If I recall worldpay and paypal were trying to be the gateway provider and acquirer which didn't work for us. Also for process simplicity it's better for us to be invoiced costs rather than have it deducted from the payment, these do that (paypal refused).

Best option is to ping out a few emails, or make a few calls, they'll asked for your transactions numbers values, ask what you're after and give you a price. They did for me anyway.

Not sure if that helps, but good luck!
Carl

 

[Naive citizen]

Carl, do those companies process physical cards with a chip'n'pin reader?

 

[Carl S]

Carl, do those companies process physical cards with a chip'n'pin reader?

Yes.

 

[white night]

If you don't want to pay all the hidden fees their is accompany called KOICOMS, they have no PCI charges or Monthly Minimums.

Global payments charge interchange plus pricing and you end up paying more.

Cheaper than every bank and Acquirer that I have tried.

Pm me if you want further information.