[Robin Ray]

Have been considering accepting card payments and looking at the variouse ways of doing this. One way I have been thinking of is using a netbook with BT openzone or fon, and paypal virtual terminal. It apears from their website its £20 a month for the interface. However Im sure there are more costs.
Another option is doing the same thing with a smartphone if the virtual terminal will work on  the phone or use an app.
Another option is using one of those portable hand held terrminals.

Does anyone else accept cards? If so what is the most cost effective way?

Thanks

Rob

I

[richy27]

i have been accepting cards for a few months now with payment terminal and after with time saved going bank bounced cheques and bank charges its costing my business no more than before i had one  prob do 80 % of all domestic payments by this method  costs me  £28 a month for terminal 21p on debits and 1.5 % on credits (charge the customer )   plus with handipay my company i went through there is no minimum charge on the merchant account normally most providers charge a £10 min a month .   most people see the terminal when i get the invoice out and pay by card or if the cheque book comes out i just say would you mind paying by card  young/old all know how to use them.   plus you can take payments over the phone customer not present in situation where you are doing second homes or there situations   

[Paul Heath]

With cheque guarentee cards becoming not valid this year we all have to look at other ways of accepting payments.
We been acceting cards for over 12 months now and we find more and more people are using this method.
I also think you win out when they see you take cards as they just put it on the plastic and not got the hassle of finding the cash etc.
We use 123 send and must admit they have been very good, one problem when the terminal went down,called them and we had a replacement the next day.
Think it works out approx £25 per month, by the time you've run to the bank or not got there in time, it soon pays for it self

[Robin Ray]

Thanks for the replys so far.

Do you need a separate merchant account to accept card payments or does this all come in to the cost of the terminal and processing fees?

[richy27]

you will require a merchan account i di not pay any setup fee but i know some companys charge a setup  mine is with streamline ( natwest)but your provider sorts all that

[Carpet Dawg]

Hopefully when cheques become obsolete these terminals and thier monthly charges etc will be alot lower