Barber - taking card payment in shop - iZettle?

[Phooey]

Hi,

Hoping someone can help me out here

Mrs Phooey is a self employed barber renting a chair in a barber shop/salon. Fingers crossed back to work on 4th July!

Can someone please recommend a (simple) device which can take card payments? She has an iPhone XR and a decent 4G connection in the area she works. There is no wifi in the salon. A friend of hers has just pinged her a text telling her to look at something called iZettle. I basically need to know if this is the best option for her, or if there are better, cheaper, faster, easier alternatives?

The other (possibly) limiting factor is although she has a bank account, it's not an official business account. I imagine the bank (Natwest) will question the 10-20 individual payments per day and require her to open a business account - which isn't a problem, but time to set it all up is. The reason for using a standard current account was to save on business banking costs - which our accountant doesn't have a problem with.

Cheers

[technodup]

Phooey said:

Hi,

Hoping someone can help me out here

Mrs Phooey is a self employed barber renting a chair in a barber shop/salon. Fingers crossed back to work on 4th July!

Can someone please recommend a (simple) device which can take card payments? She has an iPhone XR and a decent 4G connection in the area she works. There is no wifi in the salon. A friend of hers has just pinged her a text telling her to look at something called iZettle. I basically need to know if this is the best option for her, or if there are better, cheaper, faster, easier alternatives?

The other (possibly) limiting factor is although she has a bank account, it's not an official business account. I imagine the bank (Natwest) will question the 10-20 individual payments per day and require her to open a business account - which isn't a problem, but time to set it all up is. The reason for using a standard current account was to save on business banking costs - which our accountant doesn't have a problem with.

Cheers

Open a business account with Starling in 15 mins on your phone. No fees.

iZettle, SumUp, Paypal Home and others all do the same thing. Reader, take card payment, deposit in your account. It's all pretty straightforward (although I've had issues with my iZettle not accepting certain cards). Find the one that suits you in terms of upfront cost and %age fees and go.

[Phooey]

technodup said:

open a business account with Starling in 15 mins on your phone. No fees.

iZettle, SumUp, Paypal Home and others all do the same thing. Reader, take card payment, deposit in your account. It's all pretty straightforward (although I've had issues with my iZettle not accepting certain cards). Find the one that suits you in terms of upfront cost and %age fees and go.

Thanks for quick reply!

Just had a very quick look at Starling - I think you need to be limited? I Googled Starling business account and a page opened saying "Business banking for limited companies"

The only issue I can see with iZettle is if the customer wants a receipt - it doesn't print them. And it's not contactless payments. I need to try and get my head around it all when I haven't had a beer

[Mikebentley]

I believe most products will send a reciept to an email if required but what twerp wants a reciept for a haircut. Chip shops and barbers by me only ever took cash before this so might close up some loopholes.
I hope she can get back to work soon.....possibly not till Aug for me.

[bearman68]

I've used Izettle for a while. It's fine. Requires android 9 or something to run - worth checking, but is pretty straightforward.

[Rollin]

I've used Sumup for a number of years. Not had any problems with payments going into a personal account.
You can open a Starling business account as a sole trader no problem if needed.

[Phooey]

Mikebentley said:

I believe most products will send a reciept to an email if required but what twerp wants a reciept for a haircut. Chip shops and barbers by me only ever took cash before this so might close up some loopholes.
I hope she can get back to work soon.....possibly not till Aug for me.

I agree re receipts, but as I'm sure you know... there's always one "twerp" that'll stand there demanding one. Just covering all bases.

Thank you. She has very much enjoyed the extended holiday . Hope you get back soon too



Thank you to everyone else who has replied too. I think iZettle and Starling might be a good option for her. I'm not too clued up on tech hence wanting the easiest option

[Simpo Two]

Well I have to say cash sounds a damn sight easier than all that hi-tech smartphone internet bank ballcocks where you have to use forums before you can understand them. 'There's a tenner'. Sorted.

[pherlopolus]

We use izettle pro which handles store, online shopping and customer not present. Very impressed and interfaces nicely with xero.

We use them as part of a till with printer, cash drawer and a xaiomi 10" tablet. very happy and they even just rang to drop the % to 1%

[eltax91]

pherlopolus said:

We use izettle pro which handles store, online shopping and customer not present. Very impressed and interfaces nicely with xero.

We use them as part of a till with printer, cash drawer and a xaiomi 10" tablet. very happy and they even just rang to drop the % to 1%

Crazy question. What’s the difference between online and customer not present?

[Ham_and_Jam]

pherlopolus said:

We use izettle pro which handles store, online shopping and customer not present. Very impressed and interfaces nicely with xero.

We use them as part of a till with printer, cash drawer and a xaiomi 10" tablet. very happy and they even just rang to drop the % to 1%

Hi. We are currently in negotiations with iZettle trying to get a custom quote.

They are a bit secretive regarding there custom rates. We are on target to get a reduced rate but would really appreciate if you could me let me know what the criteria was for 1%? PM me if you don’t want to publish on an open forum.

[Ham_and_Jam]

eltax91 said:

Crazy question. What’s the difference between online and customer not present?

PCI compliance, an extra person is involved.

Online - you enter your own details.

CNP - you ring up and give card details to another person, who might put them in a terminal, or might write them on a piece of paper......

From a risk perspective one is more risky than the other, so commands a higher fee

[pherlopolus]

Ham_and_Jam said:

Hi. We are currently in negotiations with iZettle trying to get a custom quote.

They are a bit secretive regarding there custom rates. We are on target to get a reduced rate but would really appreciate if you could me let me know what the criteria was for 1%? PM me if you don’t want to publish on an open forum.

We are on target to hit £200k during November/December. Probably 2-3k a month rest of year.

They would have kittens if they knew what we put through stripe as well 🤣

[Ham_and_Jam]

pherlopolus said:

We are on target to hit £200k during November/December. Probably 2-3k a month rest of year.

They would have kittens if they knew what we put through stripe as well ??

Thanks for replying.

Their criteria for reduced rates are £10k / month for 3 consecutive months. Did you meet this? Not quite sure from your previous quote.

[Drawweight]

Card payments are the way to go but I bet your wife is going to lose out on tips.

I used to work in a cash only business and Mrs Draw used to drive me nuts.

She’d pay 30 quid for basically a trim then tip on top of that!

[eltax91]

Ham_and_Jam said:

eltax91 said:

Crazy question. What’s the difference between online and customer not present?

PCI compliance, an extra person is involved.

Online - you enter your own details.

CNP - you ring up and give card details to another person, who might put them in a terminal, or might write them on a piece of paper......

From a risk perspective one is more risky than the other, so commands a higher fee

Thanks. I work on the ‘CNP’ world doing anti fraud, but it’s called card (not customer) not present to us! What you’re referring to, we call MOTO transactions (mail order, telephone order), so there’s the confusion.

[pherlopolus]

Ham_and_Jam said:

Thanks for replying.

Their criteria for reduced rates are £10k / month for 3 consecutive months. Did you meet this? Not quite sure from your previous quote.

Not strictly speaking, but we are way over on average (we took £15k last November, and 110k in December) I didn't ask for the lower rate, they rang me for a general business chat and offered it!

[Ham_and_Jam]

pherlopolus said:

Not strictly speaking, but we are way over on average (we took £15k last November, and 110k in December) I didn't ask for the lower rate, they rang me for a general business chat and offered it!

If you are taking £110k in a single month, even 1% is way too much.

You can get rates as low as 0.3%

We’re looking at a range of options right now as we’re taking a lot more card payments, and iZettle as good and simple as it, is just to expensive once over £5k / month.

Obviously don’t know your business or individual circumstance so can’t be sure on specific rates, but I would definitely have a look at what else is out there.

Edited by Ham_and_Jam on Sunday 21st June 10:04

Edited by Ham_and_Jam on Sunday 21st June 10:05

[loafer123]

Drawweight said:

Card payments are the way to go but I bet your wife is going to lose out on tips.

I used to work in a cash only business and Mrs Draw used to drive me nuts.

She’d pay 30 quid for basically a trim then tip on top of that!

It looks like iZettle does ask “do you want to add a tip” of set up that way.

Best bet is one which asks 10%/15%/20% like taxis do, as it implies a tip is always given by customers and works through nudge psychology.

[pherlopolus]

Ham_and_Jam said:

If you are taking £110k in a single month, even 1% is way too much.

You can get rates as low as 0.3%

We’re looking at a range of options right now as we’re taking a lot more card payments, and iZettle as good and simple as it, is just to expensive once over £5k / month.

Obviously don’t know your business or individual circumstance so can’t be sure on specific rates, but I would definitely have a look at what else is out there.

Edited by Ham_and_Jam on Sunday 21st June 10:04

Edited by Ham_and_Jam on Sunday 21st June 10:05

Probably. But it manages our stock levels, POS and reporting as well. It is about 5-10% of our total turnover. Mainly secondary spend.