Card reader & App payment system

[pramsay13]

Does anyone have an update on using one of the payment systems like paypal or izettle etc.

[Graysalchemy]

I am still looking. The World pay Zink looks quite good though you have to wait four days for your money, which at the moment is a deal breaker for me so I think Paypal is still my preferred choice.

[Glimpse]

I'm just looking into getting a card reader, what are the advantages of the PayPal and izettle systems? My bank (RBS) just refers me to World Pay which seems ridiculously expensive...

[Graysalchemy]

If you take under about £25K a year then you are better of paying the flat 2.75% handling charge that these solutions offer (or with Worldpay zinc you can pay a fee of £5.99 and a reduced fee of 1.95%), there is no fixed fees or machine rentals etc that you get with a normal merchant account.

To me 2.75% doesn't seem to bad, you could easily add 2.83% to fund the 2.75% fee and the customer not really notice it.

[YPF]

When I first opened the shop I used the PayPal app and reader - it worked fine and brought quite a few favourable comments from customers. Nobody had any reticence in using it. Big advantage of PayPal is that the money can be in your bank account within 5 minutes if you want it to be. If you expect to take significant amounts of money with it then be prepared for fairly hefty charges.

After 3 months I swapped to a fixed card reader through Barclaycard after thoroughly investigating the market - be careful there are some unscrupulous providers out there.

[Abacus]

I have both a fixed terminal and also izettle. I use izettle when visiting customers and as a back up should the fixed terminal fail. I have nothing but praise for the izettle and if the rates were nearer those charged by the fixed terminal boys I'd use it for everything.

[Dave E]

I opted for the Paypal reader for a few months now, no complaints apart from I couldn't figure how to power off the reader and it kept running out of battery (had to hold the button down for 5 seconds ), their tech support was good when I couldn't get my first test transaction to authorise. The transaction fee is worth it for me (low volume) especially versus the hassle with cheques.

Great for when visiting customers, just be aware of any 3g blackspots for the phone connection. I liked that a payment receipt can be instantly texted/emailed to the customer though i'm sure this is standard on most of these services.

[pramsay13]

I've made a quick document to let people see at a glance what the details are.
If I've made any mistakes let me know.

[Graysalchemy]

Got a leaflet through from costco, which had a dealwith Netpay for card processing. Basically 1.2% for cards and 12p for debit cards. machine rental starting from £12 a month.

[GeoSpectrum]

I tried Izettle for awhile but the card reader proved problematic and they hung on to my money for longer than I would like. I now use paypal, the app and card reader. I chose to switch as I also use paypal for online sales so it makes sense to put everything through the same account. Fees can mount up but at the moment I'm happy to pay the fees in return for the ease of use and convenience the solution offers. If turnover increases by 50% then I may look at other solutions.

[Framie]

I use the paypal reader and works great for the low volume. I have a debit card connected to the account and I can use funds instantly without any transferring

Just remember to keep it charged

[pramsay13]

How long until izettle give you the money? I couldn't find an answer other than they make daily deposits.

[Glimpse]

Pramsay, thanks for going to the trouble of putting that together - it's saved me a lot of leg work!

[pramsay13]

No problem, wasn't too big an effort. What one are you going for?

[Glimpse]

Out of the ones discussed so far, the iZettle seems to be favourite. I've only just opened the shop so January will be my first full month. I think I'll wait til the end of Feb - I'm keeping a log of how many customers want to pay by card and what sort of turnover they'll account for.

At the moment, I'm apologising, saying I'm waiting for the bank to sort out the reader and pointing them in the direction of a cash machine 100ys away! Customers seem to very understanding with it being such a new business...

[pramsay13]

iZettle takes 1-3 working days.
I think I'm going to get iZettle as the reader is cheaper and first month is free.

[StevenG]

Interesting topic - we're in the market now for something similar. At the moment we're sharing the shop floor with an existing business (actually, they're the landlords) and we get free use of their card machine which is great, the only niggle is getting payments into our account, at times it can be over a week - that's not good for our cashflow I've read the above posts but still I'm not sure what to do. I've read some negative points about the Paypal option, especially the actual card reader itself. I've noticed a lot of companies offer the mobile option which could be useful as the missus likes to do little craft fairs etc.

Can anyone offer any real world experience now that the units have been in practice for a while I've taken a look at Netpay & WorldPay but I can't really see something that would sway me any particular direction.

Cheers
Steven

[Rainbow]

I've recently got an iZettle card reader which I'll be using at my forthcoming Art & Picture Framing Fairs. So I haven't used it yet but so far they've been brilliant to deal with. They give me the impression that they really *want* to help instead of having to help because it's their job. Which might mean that they're just extra good at their job! Just make sure it's compatible with whatever mobile you use.

[Jamesnkr]

Brilliant for small payments; a few tens or even the odd hundred. Excruciatingly painful for big payments. Particularly as they charge the full amount on debit card payments as well as credit (with a 'proper' reader there's a fixed fee for debit card payments, about 20p).

[pramsay13]

iZettle is perfect for me.
I use it around once a week so definitely cheaper than a monthly rental machine.
Payments take around 3 - 4 days so not great for cash flow it doable.
Ideal for taking to craft fairs etc. as it's fully mobile.