Helping a schools with donations- which card reader
Helping a schools with donations- which card reader
Author
Discussion

The jiffle king

Original Poster:

7,535 posts

288 months

Wednesday
quotequote all
The missus is organising a Christmas shopping event for the school.

£5 per present

Used to be paid in cash but no w has to go through a card like sum up or similar

The cheapest one they can find is an 85p charge per £5 transaction split 45 p then 20p +15% ish

Any ideas how to do this cheaper whilst not taking cash , and being able to abide by the kinds of rules a school will have ?

HughG

3,749 posts

271 months

Wednesday
quotequote all
Our PTA have SumUp machines, but asked people to scan a QR code and pay via that whenever possible as there are lower fees, still goes via sumup.

Russet Grange

3,128 posts

56 months

Wednesday
quotequote all
The jiffle king said:
The missus is organising a Christmas shopping event for the school.

£5 per present

Used to be paid in cash but no w has to go through a card like sum up or similar

The cheapest one they can find is an 85p charge per £5 transaction split 45 p then 20p +15% ish

Any ideas how to do this cheaper whilst not taking cash , and being able to abide by the kinds of rules a school will have ?
That seems VERY expensive. Do you perhaps mean 8.5p?

SumUp Solo Lite will cost 8.5p for a £5 transaction. Zettle (PayPal) slightly more.

chip*

1,848 posts

258 months

Wednesday
quotequote all
We use Sumup solo machine as they have an integrated data SIM card, but you can link to WiFi if available.
Also, you can download the SumUp app and use your mobile to process payment if you wish.

Jasandjules

72,628 posts

259 months

Wednesday
quotequote all
Why not just use cash?

chip*

1,848 posts

258 months

Wednesday
quotequote all
I can't speak for the OP, but based on our school events, people rarely carry cash, and payment is mostly by card, phone or by watch. This is confirmed by our SumUp takings which are usually over 70% with the rest in cash. I was Treasurer for our PTA and cash was a pain for 2 reasons 1) had to be stored safely ( PTA insurance for cash held within the household was limited to £1000) 2) regular trips to bank the cash. Using SumUp, the money credits the account within 24 hours completely hassle free e.g. say £1000 takings cost £16.90 in fees which is pretty reasonable imo.

AB

20,579 posts

225 months

Wednesday
quotequote all
Another vote for SumUp, app allows you to take payment on your phone or you can link the little card reader up to an iPad. Turns it into a decent POS system.

I bought a stand off Amazon for my iPad, we had it at the side of the 'bar' when we were selling drinks at the summer fair. You can use the app to set prices for different things which makes it simple.


E-bmw

13,531 posts

182 months

Thursday
quotequote all
The jiffle king said:
The missus is organising a Christmas shopping event for the school.

£5 per present

Used to be paid in cash but no w has to go through a card like sum up or similar

The cheapest one they can find is an 85p charge per £5 transaction split 45 p then 20p +15% ish

Any ideas how to do this cheaper whilst not taking cash , and being able to abide by the kinds of rules a school will have ?
Can't you just get people to pay by internet banking app for those without cash?

AB

20,579 posts

225 months

Thursday
quotequote all
E-bmw said:
Can't you just get people to pay by internet banking app for those without cash?
Don't underestimate the laziness of people. You need to make it as easy as possible for them to spend the money or they just won't bother.

We switched to a token system for a couple of PTA events this year, paid on the school parentpay app before the event. Kids got given the tokens to spend on the day. Raised a hell of a lot more than usual.

The jiffle king

Original Poster:

7,535 posts

288 months

Thursday
quotequote all
Thanks for the responses:
Why not cash? the total will be about £3500 and the school does not want cash of that size on site
do I mean 85p? Yes, it's crazy hence the question

Sum Up seems like a good option

Why not internet banking? They need the name of each child and the people the presents are for. Trying to get 200 parents to write the number of presents whether the presents are for kids, adults or pets and then tying a bank transfer to the detail of that is hard

What we want is a way to write it down and take the payment then and there. Sum up seems a good option

Thankyou for all the responses

Peter911

598 posts

187 months

Thursday
quotequote all
We use to (and still occasionally) use SumUp but Zavo is half the price.

The jiffle king

Original Poster:

7,535 posts

288 months

Thursday
quotequote all
Peter911 said:
We use to (and still occasionally) use SumUp but Zavo is half the price.
Thankyou