Small business - credit card machine

[Countdown]

A friend of mine is opening a small bakery/delicatessen. She needs something which allows her to take payments by credit/debit card initially just for shop sales but hopefully something that can also be linked to her website if/when that is up and running. She is looking for something with minimal transaction fees and something that is easier than pie to set up. Any suggestions gratefully received.....

[she will also be selling proper traditional home-made cheese and onion pie.... ]

[Doofus]

Worldpay are ubiquitous, but a fking nightmare to deal with.
Sagepay are better, in my experience, and a lot more flexible for small business needs.
Most banks will offer an acquirer service, perhaps through a third party. HSBCs isn't great.

Initially, she'll need a hardware terminal, and if she's linking to a website later, then she'll want a virtual terminal later. There sre more alternatives in that situaton. Shopify, for example, have a 'built in' card merchanting service.

[nyt]

Most of the stalls in my local street-food market (Lower Marsh, near Waterloo station) have portable credit card machines.

If your friend wants first hand opinion then I'm sure there would be plenty of first-hand advice there is you get there before lunchtime.

[mouseymousey]

Bank provided facilities will be overpriced and most providers will tie you in to a 5 year contract. Payzone are reasonably priced and only have a 1 year contract. They have online options too.

[Countdown]

nyt said:

Most of the stalls in my local street-food market (Lower Marsh, near Waterloo station) have portable credit card machines.

If your friend wants first hand opinion then I'm sure there would be plenty of first-hand advice there is you get there before lunchtime.

Thanks - probably going to sound stupid but your post made me google "portable credit card machines" - not sure why I didn't think of that first!!

If we ignore the wesbite bit for a second - iZettle looks pretty good at first glance. Does anybody have any experience of that?

Going forward Sagepay also looks good

[Funk]

Countdown said:

nyt said:

Most of the stalls in my local street-food market (Lower Marsh, near Waterloo station) have portable credit card machines.

If your friend wants first hand opinion then I'm sure there would be plenty of first-hand advice there is you get there before lunchtime.

Thanks - probably going to sound stupid but your post made me google "portable credit card machines" - not sure why I didn't think of that first!!

If we ignore the wesbite bit for a second - iZettle looks pretty good at first glance. Does anybody have any experience of that?

Going forward Sagepay also looks good

There's a coffee guy that comes round daily making (great) fresh-ground coffee in his van (cafe2u). He uses iZettle and it links to his phone, works really well.

Edited by Funk on Saturday 15th April 13:58

[Fermit The Krog and Sexy Sarah]

I have an iZettle for my business. Some thoughts.

I paid £30 for it, which I thought was extremely reasonable.
The iphone app is easy to use, a few go's and I memorised the sequence.
depending on how much goes through it their charge is up to 2%, less than 1% if £2k or more P/M.
Cash takes 2 days to land in your account.
No monthly charges.
Very compact, it sits nicely in my glovebox. It's about the size of a 20 pack of fags.

The only downside was applying for it. At first they said my company number showed my business was dormant (it wasn't, year 5 accounts submitted prior!) then they needed account copies, and various other faffs, apparently all to do with business regs/FCA.

[Countdown]

Cheers all.

@Fermit - this is literally a new business so she has no accounts and is having to jump through hoops to get a business bank account. She's been doing it from home for friends/family/wok colleagues and she's decided to give it a go. Is the lack of a business history, bank accounts, tax returns etc. going to be an issue with iZettle?

[Fermit The Krog and Sexy Sarah]

Fermit The Krog and Sexy Sarah said:

Countdown said:

Cheers all.

@Fermit - this is literally a new business so she has no accounts and is having to jump through hoops to get a business bank account. She's been doing it from home for friends/family/wok colleagues and she's decided to give it a go. Is the lack of a business history, bank accounts, tax returns etc. going to be an issue with iZettle?

I would suggest speaking to them, as I can't say what their criteria is. They did make a big deal about abiding by the FCA regulations, but I'd imagine they should be able to do something for her.

[dudleybloke]

I know someone who uses a PayPal card machine. Fees are higher but it was the quickest and easiest to set up as he needed it in a rush.

[VEX]

I use Zinc, which is WorldPay' solution and it works very well.

Also allows me to do telephone payments and email payments which none of the others allowed me to do.

V.

[Hoofy]

VEX said:

I use Zinc, which is WorldPay' solution and it works very well.

Also allows me to do telephone payments and email payments which none of the others allowed me to do.

V.

Do like WP Zinc. Very handy. Makes us look professional over the phone.

One thing to be wary of all services - the card reader may not allow contactless so check before signing on the dotted line.

[buggalugs]

My partner uses an iZettle for her craft business it works well and it's easy to use. She is a sole trader just starting out so not much history.

[Hoofy]

Another thing to think about - some card readers need to connect to a phone, others have their own sim card. The latter appears more professional and looks less gimmicky to some.

[nadger]

dudleybloke said:

I know someone who uses a PayPal card machine. Fees are higher but it was the quickest and easiest to set up as he needed it in a rush.

My wife uses a PayPal terminal for her jewellery business. It's been brilliant so far. Very straight forward to use and easy to set up.
I also have a friend who's set up a micro pub in peterborough who uses izettle. They're very pleased with it by all accounts.

[Disco_Biscuit]

I use Sum Up, does the job.

[Fermit The Krog and Sexy Sarah]

Hoofy said:

Another thing to think about - some card readers need to connect to a phone, others have their own sim card. The latter appears more professional and looks less gimmicky to some.

iZettle is in this category.

[buggalugs]

Fermit The Krog and Sexy Sarah said:

Hoofy said:

Another thing to think about - some card readers need to connect to a phone, others have their own sim card. The latter appears more professional and looks less gimmicky to some.

iZettle is in this category.

We like the app because it has a basic shop feature, you can put products in do your totals etc on there, show little sales graphs, put in email addresses for receipts etc. Useful if you're not already using something else for that functionality.

[Rollin]

Used Sumup for a while and have had no problems.

[dartissimus]

For a quick easy startup, the Paypal card reader is cheap (purchase outright at £59) and easy to work; it uses your mobile phone as a modem. no dedicated phoneline or broadband needed, money into you Paypal account quicker than the regular systems

I have one as a backup and for anything external; the percentage charge is about 2.5%.

As said elsewhere setting up with a merchant service provider, is horrible, multi year contracts, monthly bills for terminal rental, PCI DSS compliance, which is demanded, but useless, and as for receiving several bills for the separate sections.

You want more nightmare stuff ? We used to use Global Payments (HSBC).
Their system went down, helplines blocked, no information, no emails, no apologies, no money coming in.

Oh, and apparently their own system failed their own security requirements.