-
Advice, views on taking card payments please?
For those of you who take cards, how do you do it? I.e. Card machine, Paypal, on-line card payments, such as Barclays were offering recently?
When my customers place their order with me, even if I were to ask for payment -full or part – usually they wouldn’t have the cash, and now that we cannot have guaranteed cheques it is going to be even more difficult, so card payment is the only way to go, it’s just the method I need to sort out.
I have Barclaycard at the pub, but don’t want to have the huge charges that they want on monthly hire, I think online may be better, but welcome your views.
Lorraine
-
20 Replies
-
only thing i can add is make sure you can take payments over the phone.
could not live with out mine. even if it costs a bit.
you don’t have to go to the bank and its near enough guaranteed in the bank in 3 days -
Hi Lorraine, when you say huge charges per month, what do you consider huge?
-
Hi lorraine I use PayPal virtual terminal and have done since day one, It costs me a £20 a month fee and then per transaction between 3-4% depending on a few variables.
I used paypal because it was easy to set up and also handles all my online payments for my web shop. In addition I can send out invoices via paypal to email addresses that people can pay with any card or their paypal account. You can track the invoices, send reminders and take payments over the phone.
When you take a payment over the phone, it automatically send email confirmation to you and to the customer. It’s been invaluable for me, especially with reports and accounting they also have a great online invoicing tool which is full customizable.
PayPal also has a great reputation and you are fully protected against fraud. I can refer you if you like, would be great as I would get a referral fee… woohooo! (form a que please…behind me!)
-
as Jason has said laurain, what are tehy charging you per month? i think i pay about £18 per month. for less than £140 per year, your business is armed with so much more variations in taking payments from your customers.
i honestly wouldnt be without it…
as mo says, at very least go with Paypal. account setup in minutes, activated soon after and only the percentage taken to worry about. but as you will know. so many companies just add the percentage on as a charge anyway, so covered there too.
-
We will be paying about £25 month after the initial 3 months, at the pub ( no fees for first 3 months) but the sign shop is not VAT registered, so will be £30 month cost. There are occasionally deals for low cost virtual card payments, so was interested in this, but don’t know how well it works, also, if customers would be wary of Internet payments, even when they are present, done off my computer.
-
I recently got a barclays terminal, £10 +vat hire, min bill £10 (prob plus vat too) so £25.
i’ve had it three weeks and have put more through it that i thought i ever would,
….. i’ve also taken four £30 sales instantly, these were from people wanting a particular ebay item but, not having an ebay account or paypal, wanted to pay over the phone, in the past these would have been told to send a cheque, perhaps one in three bothered, as a result, i’ve had sales that would otherwise not bothered so, the profit from just one sale has paid for the machine for the month.
i’ve had customers who’d normally take weeks to find the time to come and collect their signs / tee shirts simply pay over the phone and have the goods sent courier,
it’s near instant cash flow, to me that is worth far more than £25 a month.
ps, I do take paypal payments, always have but…. i’m sceptical, paypal always err on the side of the customer and in the past i’ve had (ebay sales) money refunded purely on the basis that the customer claimed to have not received the item (sent twice), the colour wasn’t as they expected, etc. with the cards it’s not so easy for a customer to be a knob and click a few buttons in order to take the mickey and grab their money back.
maybe the set-up Mo uses works ok but, £20 a month plus the usual 3-5% is more expensive than taking cards direct.
-
Hugh, don’t u have say 3-5% of transactions to deal with?
-
I do take cards direct rob, its just the same as having a terminal in your office. In fact its more secure than a terminal, especially a wireless one, you can’t skim cards etc. I know paypal do err on the side of the customer, I have been there in fact exact same scenario as you. However the card terminal is exactly the same as any other terminal and doesn’t cover the custome, only you. No need for a paypal account and you can’t email invoices to customers with a reg terminal for online payments.
Its been excellent for me, I even take my lap top to sires and when I sell at shows etc and can take payments on the spot with my broadband modem. U can’t do that with a terminal!
-
We pay close to £25 a month, + the usual % . The monthly cost is a fraction higher due to the pdq machine being cable free.
we were alittle scared when we had it, another cost etc, but we just put our prices up a small amount, so now everyone pays for it….. whether they pay cash or card.
If you haven`t got a pdq machine how can you ask for a deposit, most people will not have £100 cash on them. Let them leave the shop without taking a deposit gives them the opportunity to shop else where.
-
Dave,
yes, my rent is £10, the transactions are i think 2-4%, depends on the cards, my minumum spend is £10 billing each month, at 4% i can take around £250 before my bill goes above the ten quid, ive prob done a grand in two weeks so while my bill will be higher, i’ve got cashflow to hand and i’ve taken the money to cover it.
i guess cheques are cheaper at a simple 50p or whatver it was but… how often do you wait a week, or even 30 days or more with account customers, then another few days for the cheque, which always arrives on a friday when you can’t get to the bank…. i’d sooner pay a % and have the money now. if the customer wants credit then they can get 30 days on their credit card! only my wholesalers and well behaved retailers get credit now, everyone else is depo and balance upon completion.
ps, I suppose that means my bill will be £40-50 this month, it seems a lot i suppose but at the end of the day, i’m not wasting time chasing payments, emailing pro-forma invoices etc, it has to save more than what it’s cost in time alone!
Mo,
i send the receipt with the goods, the invoice is emailed direct, they can pay with paypal if they want to pay the 4% fee’s, i’m slowly moving away from it now though, it’s costing me about £100-200 a month in commissions most months – on top of final sale fees etc.i’ll still take the ebay sales with it but prefer business sales to be invoiced and done via cards, saves me having to download the money and again, waiting 3-4 days for it to show in my account.
i suppose it’s all much of a muchness.
it was handy the other day though…. had a telecom chap come round to run a proper external phone line down to the workshop, we’d discussed ebay and paypal while he was working so I paid him with paypal before he left! sorted!
-
i am going back 10 years now since starting uksb, but i think thats still cheap laurain.
i had to pay something like £360 up front for the terminal, £18 per month then after. and 2-3% percent per transaction. keep in mind this was an internet busisness way back before online banking was even avilable. but still…i have also ben told that internet traders may see increases of upto 8-10% on transaction at some point. dependant on product value though, but still… 😕
-
quote Hugh Potter:Mo,
i send the receipt with the goods, the invoice is emailed direct, they can pay with paypal if they want to pay the 4% fee’s, i’m slowly moving away from it now though, it’s costing me about £100-200 a month in commissions most months – on top of final sale fees etc.i’ll still take the ebay sales with it but prefer business sales to be invoiced and done via cards, saves me having to download the money and again, waiting 3-4 days for it to show in my account!
Have you got virtual terminal rob? I can take card sales over the phone and input the card details direct on the paypal web site. It works just the same as any other PDQ machine apart from you can’t chip and pin with it. I can also send out an invoice which can be paid on line with any card by the customer. This is excellent for customers who prefer email contact rather than phone. I sell loads from ebay, but not through ebay, the advertising from my shop on ebay generates enquiries direct, great for up selling…
Once I have taken the payment I can send it to my account immediately and its in my bank inside 2 days (if I send it before 1pm on a monday it’s in my account Wednesday morning) I can pay £5 to transfer and get it in the next day, but I never do. I wonder why yours is taking so long? Have you got a merchant account with paypal?
-
HI Mo,
yup, merchant account on my business account from day one, i’m sure it’s usually 3 days to download, I too will not pay the £5 to make it quicker when in reality, it’s all controlled by a computer which could and should do it that quick anyways!
-
bit of both mo, virtual and also the terminal. Have the world Pay virtual option as well as another, coupled with Streamline terminal.
actually keep meaning to move completely to virtual, simply to aid in administration as it keeps digital copies of everything, as well as Hiistory so easily found etc rather than paper trail nonesense. never mind that, think how we are saving the environment not printing thing! 😉 :lol1:
-
I can see the point of having the virtual terminal and it does seem pretty good. i’ll certainly be using paypal in one form or another as a big part of the online shop when it goes live.
as for the paper trail, i’ve never been so organised! i print off two copies of everything, one to the customer when paid, one in the either paid or pending tray for filing one day, It actually forced me into being more attentive to my accounts / invoices which has been a good thing, this past year has been good for me and it’s seemingly getting better all the time so it’s come at the right time!
talking of accounts, I must to my books for last year, got a pile of receipts and invoices a foot deep to sort out, they’ve been here on the table for three weeks now!
-
quote Hugh Potter:talking of accounts, I must to my books for last year, got a pile of receipts and invoices a foot deep to sort out, they’ve been here on the table for three weeks now!
My accountant just today said "at least your desk looks interesting, a clear desk means you have nothing to do"!
😳I think that customers feel more secure with what they have got used to. If I were to do an online payment, for example, through Barclaycard, took their card no, but no terminal, they would think they were more vulnerable to hacking, and make me wait until they can get the cash.
I have been offering BACS for some time, a few use it, many collect and want to pay by card (see what I did there?)
I like Hugh’s analogy is good. I am just concerned that I am the monkey, and the peanuts won’t pay the bank fees.
Lorraine
-
We have been taking cards for years best thing ever. Shop around with the different banks Lloyds, Streamline etc and they will do you a deal on the rental. I have heard that cards taken over the phone can be disputed up to six months after the payment and there are no guarantees.
-
I got a machine in almost instantly. We’ve taken a hell of a lot of money with it.
Deposits over the phone are great.
Take a look at Cardsave, which is just streamline re-branded and cheaper.
I pay
Personal Credit Cards 1.9%
Corporate CC 2.55%Debit cards 36p each
I think over the phone you pay 5-10p more on debit cards, and I don’t think 1% more for c cards.
-
we have a streamline one here seems reasonable enough
-
Lorraine,
just thought i’d come back to this…
I get a flat fee of 3% on all cards, I took about £900 in card payments in June and it cost me (including rent) £37. vat on the £10 rent only.
thats well worth it in my opinion, ok, it’s £40 I would have otherwise had but, I might well still be chasing those payments now!
cheers,
Hugh
Log in to reply.
