Credit card processing

[C2 RIBS]

Can anyone suggest a value for money credit card processing company either using fixed office unit or a mobile machine. I have received many quotes and all offer similar services with monthly charges and fees for transactions , so looking to those who are happy with their supplier or for someone who has found the best alround deal.
Cheers and Merry Christmas to everyone.

[Poly]

Originally Posted by C2 RIBS

Can anyone suggest a value for money credit card processing company either using fixed office unit or a mobile machine. I have received many quotes and all offer similar services with monthly charges and fees for transactions , so looking to those who are happy with their supplier or for someone who has found the best alround deal.
Cheers and Merry Christmas to everyone.

C2 - i am in a different market from you - but we have recently added credit card payment to our options. We ended up with Paypal's virtual terminal service. I can't say how good or bad they are - there were a few hoops to jump through first in terms of privacy policies etc - but actually not too bad.

It should cost £20/month but is free at the moment. That offer is due to end at end of Jan - not sure if they will extend - as actually can't see why they have a fixed cost its not like they are hiring you a box. Their per transaction fees are possibly not great - but that wasn't a major concern for us as the volume and value of transactions will be relatively low.

If you expect to do a lot of transactions where the cardholder IS present then an actual terminal might be better.

I think worldpay were offering something similar but I got sucked in by Paypal's no monthly charges offer.

[Bigmuz7]

Interesting .. so its all a web service ? As all my transactions are cardholder not present, this could save me a bob or two ? and do away with a card machine rental

[Poly]

Originally Posted by Bigmuz7

Interesting .. so its all a web service ? As all my transactions are cardholder not present, this could save me a bob or two ? and do away with a card machine rental

yes - not sure how it compares in terms of effort etc, or transaction prices. https://www.paypal.com/uk/cgi-bin/we...t-fees-outside the equivalent worldpay service is: called MOTO - http://www.worldpay.com/business/con...=pricing2&c=UK

[MikeCC]

Originally Posted by C2 RIBS

Can anyone suggest a value for money credit card processing company either using fixed office unit or a mobile machine. I have received many quotes and all offer similar services with monthly charges and fees for transactions , so looking to those who are happy with their supplier or for someone who has found the best alround deal.
Cheers and Merry Christmas to everyone.

There's two aspects to this - one is the merchant account which lets you take payments. They will usually offer a payment terminal, either landline or mobile but they aren't necessarily a good deal. However, you'll need a merchant account regardless - that's the bit that sets what percentage you pay on credit card payments.

The other part is the payment 'gateway' which some merchant accounts offer as well. There's a service called MobilePOS which operates from a phone if you're out and about and also gives you a web interface for phone payments. Setup charge, plus monthly minimum charge plus pence per transaction. However, the mobile bit doesn't allow for chip & PIN, so you need to get a signature as well. They do have a mobile chip & PIN terminal offer as well.

Alternatively, once you have the merchant account set up, buy a chip & PIN mobile terminal and use it for everything. OK, unless you have website orders as well. You can get secondhand terminals for £150-250 but check the model will work with your merchant account!

[Channel Ribs]

Originally Posted by C2 RIBS

Can anyone suggest a value for money credit card processing company either using fixed office unit or a mobile machine. I have received many quotes and all offer similar services with monthly charges and fees for transactions , so looking to those who are happy with their supplier or for someone who has found the best alround deal.
Cheers and Merry Christmas to everyone.

Hi Ian, merry Christmas to you too.

We have used HSBC for ages and have a really good rate, it is cheaper for us to take a card than to bank cash.

[C2 RIBS]

Cheers for all the ideas, I know a couple who use the paypal angle and may work for me. My commercial bank are presently quoting and hoped they are under pressure for business so needed a few up my sleeve to balance against them. Will see what comes up from bank and then do some bartering and then see if they want the business. I think we are in strong position to barter for best offers.

[Tim M]

Ian, I looked into this last year. From memory, HSBC came up with the most attractive package for me. In the end I didn't bother as I deemed it to be too much hassle, although it would be very handy.

[Doug Stormforce]

Without trying to offend those that use it I don't personally dont think Paypal looks very professional.

I group it into the same catogry as business that have hotmail or yahoo domain email addresses, are not VAT registered and run from home.

Asides from that Paypal is very expensive if you have decent turn over going through.

As said above there are 2 sides, the merchant account, we use Lloyds Cardnet, but does not mean they are the best and the gateway.

Different Gateways are effective for different businesse, its all related to your card turnover, value of sale, diversity of value etc. Where one compnay may have lots of low level transactiosn, another mayhave afew high value transactions and therfore require a different package.

[Ian Sharlot]

Originally Posted by Doug Stormforce

Without trying to offend those that use it I don't personally dont think Paypal looks very professional.

I group it into the same catogry as business that have hotmail or yahoo domain email addresses, are not VAT registered and run from home.

Asides from that Paypal is very expensive if you have decent turn over going through.

As said above there are 2 sides, the merchant account, we use Lloyds Cardnet, but does not mean they are the best and the gateway.

Different Gateways are effective for different businesse, its all related to your card turnover, value of sale, diversity of value etc. Where one compnay may have lots of low level transactiosn, another mayhave afew high value transactions and therfore require a different package.

I have to agree with Doug, When I see that a business accepts paypal, it leaves me thinking of e bay shops and people working from home.

I looked in to a terminal myself around 6 months ago and, as Tim M said, at that time HSBC offered the best deal , but I think HSBC were going through another company.

[Poly]

Originally Posted by Doug Stormforce

Without trying to offend those that use it I don't personally dont think Paypal looks very professional.

Doug - unless Paypal mislead me when I took it out then our customers don't know we use paypal (perhaps unless there is a complaint of some sort). I was told (but have not tested) that it would show on their bill as MYCOMPANYNAME not paypals. That said its not critical for us, we are expecting to do perhaps 1% of t/o on c/cards. It is for the customers convenience rather than going through the business hoops of raising a PO internally.

[Searider]

Ian,

When we were setting up for card payments our bank wanted £200 to set up and then a monthly rental on top.

We're members of the Federation of Bmall Businesses and they offered no set up fee and a free terminal with Streamline. I think we pay about £15 a month and about 2% of the transaction.

This saving paid for the FSB membership fee for the first year.

[John Kennett]

People tend to assume that they need to get a merchant account from their own bank, and don't realise that it's possible to shop around.

I used www.seymourdirect.co.uk to get a merchant account recently. There is a joining fee, but no monthly charge and the rates were half what my bank offered! Worth getting a quote, if only to get someone else to price match

While I'm at it, if you ever need short term hire of a GSM chip and pin terminal (eg for use at an exhibition) then 123 Send were the best that I could find. Eye wateringly expensive, but very efficient service.

John

[jwalker]

Originally Posted by Ian Sharlot

I have to agree with Doug, When I see that a business accepts paypal, it leaves me thinking of e bay shops and people working from home.

I can appreciate your thinking but as a buyer I now prefer to use paypal wherever it is offered. It saves me leaving my credit card details, again, on some server where I have no control of them. Slightly diverging, I also prefer those sites where there is a direct route to the checkout without having to register and make a password, again.

[tinker]

All imo, Paypal do offer an unbranded option and are increasing market share for their branded payment based transaction system by the day (google checkout are also in this market), reasons? web savey users security issues relating to credit card details, phishing sites...

If its only UK based transactions then Nochex are very good. Stay web based for the lower cost's, unless you have very large transaction rates, the merchant account/ gateway system is more expensive to set up and run.

[havener]

Used to run through HSBC, have recently moved across to RBSNatwest and found them very good.

[codprawn]

Originally Posted by Ian Sharlot

I have to agree with Doug, When I see that a business accepts paypal, it leaves me thinking of e bay shops and people working from home.

I looked in to a terminal myself around 6 months ago and, as Tim M said, at that time HSBC offered the best deal , but I think HSBC were going through another company.

I can't believe how stuck in the mud some companies can be. Many people PREFER to use PayPal as it's so much easier.

Even ParcelForce and Royal Mail takes payPal now - people need to move with the times......

[tim griffin]

I have used Pay Pal for a few years now and am very happy with the service .
Merry Christmas.

[Doug Stormforce]

Looks like I opened a can of worms.

On one side we have Polwart telling us that the punters do not know they are using PayPal but on the other side we have Codders telling us punters prefer pay pal and Tinker telling us that web savvy users prefer the perceived security of pay pal.

How on earth can customers not know they are paying through pay pal and at the same time prefer your payment/merchant facilities because they prefer pay pal?

I did not realise you could have a pay pal account and the customer would not realise they were paying through pay pal. I guess this solves the non professional opinion I put forward earlier.

All that aside I have always understood Pay pal to charge a higher % than merchant facilities. If therefore only a small amount of your turnover is through cards (or your turnover is small) then I can see the advantage. When I last reviewed our facilities and re negotiated our rates paypal would have taken another 2% gross from my annual turnover, this is quite a lump from our bottom line. That 2% is my personal profit nothing else.

Lets say for example you business worked on a 10% of turnover margin after all expenses paid then 2% of turnover is a 20% decrease in the money that you the owner or shareholder take home.

Merchant/DC/CC facilities are not for all businesses, they are another overhead and lets face it bank transfer is pretty straight forward (and quicker) these days. For us Merchant facilities works, we take a lot of phone bookings and are able to process them straight away. It was not that long ago however that we relied on cheque and bank transfers, we had to wait a few days to be sure the customer was serious but we saved a pretty major overhead.

Returning to the merchant vs. pay pal debate I’m not sure how using pay pal is easier for the customer than using any other gateway. They will at some point either have to register or type in all of their CC details for each transaction.

[Poly]

Originally Posted by Doug Stormforce

I did not realise you could have a pay pal account and the customer would not realise they were paying through pay pal. I guess this solves the non professional opinion I put forward earlier.

Doug - I am referring to off-line transactions (ie. phone/fax orders) we don't do on-line so I'm not sure if Paypal is always obvious then.

As for ease of use - online - if you already have a paypal account then buying through it means you can pay without reentering billing and delivery addresses all over again: one registration to cover a wide range of cusomers.