[Jon Tabbener]

Does anyone do it -

i've been looking at the paypal site, it says you can accept card payments through you website & customers don't even have to have a paypal account, no merchant account needed & until you are taking over £1000 / month no monthly charge

Cheers

Jon

[Simon Gerrard]

Jon,

I can't really envisage how a carpet cleaning company could make use of that facility. To do so you would either need to take payment in advance, which customers won't like, or have them log on to your website when the job is done, which isn't practical, so I think there are problems with it that are better solved with a conventional CC terminal.

Simon

[Jon Tabbener]

fair point Simon but with so many people on the net these days it's maybe just another option for them to pay by & with mobile phones these days you could do it through the phone also

[Simon Gerrard]

Jo,

I think the mobile phone route is also problematic. Since it was first metioned I've asked a succession of customers who were paying by conventional mobile card terminal if they would have done so had I sought to make the payment through my mobile phone. 100% have so far said no and when asked why, they said that they couldn't be sure if their card details were as secure and that the phone wasn't storing their details and for that reason I wouldn't make a payment that way either.
The point being that you have to look at these things from a customers perspective and not just the added convenience it may bring you.

Simon

[darren_metcalfe]

I use paypal in 2 ways.  One way is to send the customer an invoice through paypal which they then pay.  Alternatively I take payment through a virtual terminal.  All this is done on my phone.  I mainly do the invoicing which means I do not input any card details into my phone just an email address.

To be honest the Invoice way is great.  Although the fees are slightly higher than a CC terminal there is no monthly fee for the invoicing only service.  The fee is 3.4% + 20p. The virtual terminal is £25 a month plus the transaction fee.

My customers like the invoicing thing as not only do they get the invoice, they do not have to give me their credit card details and they just deal with it either there and then or pay me when they next download their emails.  I like the fact that I also can track the transactions brilliantly through paypal.  I have only had one customer who too a little while to pay but you can send a reminder through paypal also.  It also allows me to obtain their email address for marketing. I obviously ask that I can market them through this.

Admittedly the CC terminal would probably be slightly easier but because I wanted to see how many transactions I was doing with a CC that this option allows me to do it with no monthly commitment.  Worth looking at imo. Additionally it is great for letting jobs where the customer may not be present as I send them an invoice and they pay there and then.  Again I do not need to see their credit card details at all.

Works well for me at the moment.

Darren

[richy27]

£25 a month  plus transaction fees on the virtual terminal.  is £2 less per month than i pay for a proper cc terminal  transaction fees are 1.25 % on cc and 18p on debits.

i like mr gerrard have asked customers if they were happy to pay using a mobile phone app  all said they would not feel comfortable because it would not feel secure .  although i am positive it is secure customer must come first     

[darren_metcalfe]

I agree with putting transactions in a mobile. That is why I give the option of the invoicing one  which is just an email to the cust. I dont enter anything of their credit card details. The invoicing option doesnt cost anything a month just a fee when you use it.

To be honest I will prob get a terminal but at the moment I am happy with my process. Also like the fact I dont have to carry a terminal around.

Daz

[Paul Evans]

May be in years to come after the cheques are removed from bussiness
we will all have terminals. I dont think they will be expensive as they are today. The market will be flooded with them.

Paul

[Jon Tabbener]

The mobile option is just an option the customer can go onto the website & pay that way if they would rather - they would just buy carpet cleaning just like anything else they would buy on the net.

i think i'll look into it a bit further, maybe try it - i'll let you know how it goes

Jon

[Hilton]

Costco are launching their Merchant Credit and Debit Card Processing service soon 1.1% per transaction and 11p per debit card transaction, better than any of the banks.

I would never make any CC payments over a mobile phone network and would not recommend it, security is not guaranteed. I could not imagine any customers feeling comfortable with that.

[darren_metcalfe]

Chaps, re paypal invoicung I do not put any customer credit card details on my phone.

Paypal sends an email to the customer asking for the payment. The cust then logs onto their email and download the email like anything else.

They are then directed to paypals secure server for payment through their paypal account or by putting their card  details in like anyother on line transaction.

It allows you to test the water re taking credit cards without subscribing to a,terminal and contract.

Daz

[Steve Chapman]

"I would never make any CC payments over a mobile phone network and would not recommend it, security is not guaranteed. I could not imagine any customers feeling comfortable with that. "

Hilton,

how do you think mobile terminals work ?  :


Steve

[darren_metcalfe]

I was going to say that Steve but I wasn't sure on the security differences with terminal compared to the mobile phone systems.

DAz

[derek west]

can anyone point me in the right direction for getting my phone up and running to take cc payments, its an android phone?

[Steve Chapman]

Derek,
I use these :-

http://www.adelante.co.uk/mobilepos.html

They setup the merchant account etc for you, there is a fee of about £50.00 but its worth it, was hassle free for me.

since starting my payments have increased from about 3 a week to around 10 on average and increasing all the time.

I have no trouble at all from customers, they just think its a credit card terminal and are happy to pay.


Regards
Steve

[darren_metcalfe]

Hi Derek,

RE the paypal option you don't need anything special just use your browser on your phone and just log into your paypal account.

I don't use the adelante system at the moment.

Daz

[Steve Chapman]

i previously used the paypal option on my phone, but found it a bit fiddly and  long winded, plus when you enter payment details you have to enter there address etc and an email address which some of my customers didnt have or couldnt remember, i think thats why i swapped to adelante system, as its so straight forward and just a few bits of information are needed,


regards
steve

[darren_metcalfe]

I agree it is fiddly but as a way of gauging demand it is a good way of entering in to it as it costs nothing to set up.

Here is a link for anyone interested.

https://www.paypal-business.co.uk/online-invoicing-with-paypal/index.htm

I use a HTC Desire HD which is a slightly bigger screen than a standard phone but I did use it on a smaller phone before.

Daz

[derek west]

ive got the experia arc which has a 4 inch screen which is ample.
cheers for the info steve, just got in touch with them and done a costing over 2 years and it comes to nearly £2000,

thats a lot of money unless you pass on the credit card % to the custy.