What credit card machines do you use

[blade2174]

i Have been looking into Taking Credit card payments and have consulted my bank (barclays ) who have suggested that i use their system which runs on the Vodafone Network ( either gprs or gsm network) i can buy the handset for £600 and pay £9 a month line fee and then 10p per transaction or they do a rental for £30 per month and again same transaction fee.
what system do you guys use and what are your charges
and do you have any problems with the various handsets ?
thanks in advance
chris b 2

[UWSDWF]

well I'd suggest doing the rental cause you can write it off at the end of the year as a expense, as well if it breaks or whatever it's their so they must fix/replace also when the new model comes out you're not left with a model of yesteryear cause you don't want to spend another #600

but yeah I can't anyother advice cause i don't live on some island way over there

[UWSDWF]

I meant to say it becomes an expense not an asset...

[jakesussex]

I would suggest shopping around and don't automatically go with your own bank. Merchant Services (the name given to the arm of the banks that process credit card payments) are usually a separate 'business' and just because you bank with Barclays, doesn't mean you have to use their credit card facilities. An ability to bargain and play quotes off against each other may give you some competitive prices

One other option, if you have a laptop in your van, is to invest in a datacard to connect to the internet. You can then look at something like WorldPay, who are infinitely cheaper than the main banks on a per transaction charge, because they don't have the overheads in providing machinery etc.

There are pros and cons to each system - PM me if you want to know more.

[jiggler]

Try Chip & Pin Solutions

£35pcm rental, including 500 transaction per month. No line rental fees. Cheap setup fee of £75. Low Transction rates of <2%. £60 for a merchant account it's usually around £200 i think, although quite why it's so much god only knows! The process can't be all that different for the bank than opening a savings account really - just some one pushing some buttons on a PC!?!

It's a 3 year lease though. They might do you a 1 year but you'd pay more than £35pcm

http://www.chipandpinsolutions.com/

[toomush2drink]

Barclays is £29 per month inc vat with no setup fees or buy the machine and pay about £10 per month

[jiggler]

The Barclays site does say that they charge a set-up fee, although I don't know how much this will be?
http://www.barclaycardbusiness.co.uk/ac ... /cost.html
Toomush must have charmed the bird on the phone

The transaction charges will be slightly more from Barclays I reckon - i got quotes from banks and from Streamline, another independant merchant provider, and the transaction charges were higher, around 3 - 3.5%.

I guess it depends on haw many transactions you see yourself doing as to whether it'll be worth going for cheaper rental and higher transaction charges - or the other way around?

Just get loads of quotes and see where you are form there is the best advice I think.

Best o' luck matey

[Raccoon]

This probably wont apply to you, but may be worth looking for.

My bank set me up with a system for processing charges via telephone prompts. I simply ask to see the customer's card, imprint it on carbon receipt paper, then I dial a toll-free number and dial a few numbers to complete the sale. The money is dropped into my checking account by the nest business day.

This service costs minimum of $25 a month. But since my checking service was $16 a month, they waved that fee, so I'm essentially only paying $9 more montly. There is a % they deduct from each transaction, and once I meet that $25 threshhold, I've essentially spent nothing extra. It's something like 3% of all transactions.

[NickBristol]

There's a similar system this side of the pond too called MobilePOS. Same setup as Raccoon. Not tried it yet as I don't do a lot of credit card payments and those I do go via Nochex but might suit some people out there.

Looks like a good system tho, more info at www.mobilepos.co.uk

[jiggler]

The mobilePOS thing doesn't suport Chip & PIN unfortunately

[jiggler]

I checked with Barclays today- just to make sure I wasn't missing out on a better deal...

Barclays won't provide terminals or merchant services unless you bank with them unfortunately.

I went with Alliance & Leicester as it's free business banking. Alliance & Leicester do merchant banking and can provide terminals but only static ones - not the mobile one I will need.

Hope this helps anyway.

[toomush2drink]

I bank with barclays but didnt get charged a setup fee, mind due they charge for everything else !!

[carloski]

i have a mobile terminal with a company called commidea an its linked to my hsbc account, can take chip an pin on the road, unit has its own sim card, unit costs £29 a month for rental