A year ago I went through all the options for booking channels and payment online and didn't come up with anything I considered viable. I have just kicked off the process again
I would be interested in your opinion of Stripe if you go for that...
I must say I find the transaction costs of all the services just too high, especially for cross country transactions. We use a credit card machine linked to our business account and the transaction fee is 0.06%, yearly fee for the machine is ~350€ (I am in France). 90% of our transactions go through it but I want the online system for bookings such as booking.com but when you are already paying away 15%, the extra payment fee seems a lot...
Essar wrote:
PayPal HERE allows you to take card payments without a card reader using the App. When prompted to "attach to reader via bluetooth" press cancel - you then get the option to manually enter card details.
The terms and conditions of paypal here state
You cannot process a card present transaction when the customer is not present.
How do you specify to the App that the customer is not present?
Essar wrote:
PayPal HERE allows you to take card payments without a card reader using the App. When prompted to "attach to reader via bluetooth" press cancel - you then get the option to manually enter card details.
The terms and conditions of paypal here state
You cannot process a card present transaction when the customer is not present.
How do you specify to the App that the customer is not present?
Simple:
Turn off bluetooth so the card reader is not connected - when asked to turn on bluetooth press cancel. You then get the options:
Connect card reader.
PayPal Check-In.
Card Number.
Cash.
Cheque.
Invoice.
Choose Card Number, you are then prompted for:
Card Number.
Expiry.
CSC.
Postcode.
Choose Go and if all is okay it takes the payment from the card.
"Write something, even if it's just a suicide note"
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FWIW I hit on this that had been sent out by Paypal's Customer Service:
". . . I can confirm that with the PayPal Here Card Reader application, you can take card payments over the phone without the customer present.
This is done via the application on your mobile phone. once you tap Charge on the application on your mobile, there is a Card option at the bottom.
Tap Card and it would ask for the credit or debit card details. However, payments over the phone are charged at a rate of 3.4% plus 20 pence per transaction as opposed to 2.75% using the card reader. "
The usual caveats appear somewhere that taking card payments over the phone is wide open to chargeback fraud.
No idea if that helps or not! - I was just idling away a few minutes with a coffee!
Thanks GB. Simply confirms that I won't be using that method as I'm determined to find something cheaper. I'm toying with signing up with WPZinc and Stripe to cover both online and phone payments but anyway I still have my meeting with WP before I decide.
I did ask Martin of EASCO if getting a merchant bank on board might be possible but never got a response. I may email again!
Nemo wrote:
I did ask Martin of EASCO if getting a merchant bank on board might be possible but never got a response. I may email again!
I wonder what the take up would be - maybe not enough for any of the merchants to think it worthwhile?
The Barclaycard scheme through VE must have a fairly big usage as it's available to all members of course, so that's hotels, B&Bs etc plus tourist attractions.
Is it worth investigating the FSB? I'd bet they have a scheme for members and I don't imagine membership would cost anything like as much as VE (no inspection fees).
greenbarn wrote:
Is it worth investigating the FSB? I'd bet they have a scheme for members and I don't imagine membership would cost anything like as much as VE (no inspection fees).
Just had a look (I assume you mean the federation of small business?) They tie in with Worldpay (not WPZinc which is the pay as you go service) but with membership for one person starting at £155 a year, I would think you'd have to turnover a lot before making enough to beat the options we've already discussed? It doesn't give a clue what the charges might be though.
greenbarn wrote:
Is it worth investigating the FSB? I'd bet they have a scheme for members and I don't imagine membership would cost anything like as much as VE (no inspection fees).
Just had a look (I assume you mean the federation of small business?) They tie in with Worldpay (not WPZinc which is the pay as you go service) but with membership for one person starting at £155 a year, I would think you'd have to turnover a lot before making enough to beat the options we've already discussed? It doesn't give a clue what the charges might be though.
Ah - I didn't think membership would be that high! I'd want an awful lot of benefits for that.
Right just had my (short) meeting and my hunch was right in that it wasn't with WorldPayZinc at all but with WorldPay which is a completely different section of the business. When I rang up, the guy at the end of the phone obviously thought he saw an opportunity to sell me a full account rather than a pay as you go one. So a slight waste of time but at least I have figures for the future if my card payments increase.
However it leaves me back at the drawing board with Stripe or WorldPayZinc. As Stripe will be cheaper I think I need to understand clearly how that works and if it will work for the amount of requests I get for phone payment as well as offering it as an option to pay online. I'm finding Stripe very confusing though!
Hello. I have been reading with interest the posts about card payments, as we do not have this facility and I cannot see that it would ever be viable for us.
Last year I registered to accept payments via my mobile phone number on the Paym service which the banks had set up.
This is a free service, so no %commission paid and does not involve giving anyone your bank account details, just a mobile phone number for them to make a payment to.
On Wednesday our phone rang and a couple who had driven down from Scotland were looking for somewhere to stay in Ingleton. As we don't live local to the cottage I would never previously have been able to accept such a booking as it was after the banks had shut so I couldn't ask for a payment of cash into the account, and they couldn't do a bank transfer as they were in their car, and I could not meet them to receive the payment.
The result was the guests pulled over to a lay by and paid by Paym and they were in the cottage within 30 minutes of their original phone call and as soon as they arrived in the area.
I know this may not be of any use to members overseas but would it be a good idea for those of us owners in the UK to try and promote this as a way of receiving payment which appears secure and is without any additional costs? The more we promote it the more people would be inclined to use it?
(Ps I didn't register my phone to make any payments, just to receive them and it is my personal mobile phone linked to our business account not the phone number for booking enquiries)
I am registered for Paym and Pingit but haven't as yet had anyone use it. It's been so long since I registered I had to redo Pingit as I couldn't remember my log in!
I had someone enquire and go to use it yesterday but there was some confusion and so she ended up paying by bank transfer - which instantly arrived too.
It is worth adding as a method of payment but it is of course a straight bank transfer and does not involve credit or debit cards.
7 Aspire wrote:Unfortunately both sender and receiver have to have an account at one of the 16 participating banks/building societies (my bank isn't one of them ). Moreover, the sender has to have a smart phone and use their bank's banking app to access the system.
The number of people with smart phones is estimated at 60 to 70% of UK adults; more and more of those are using banking apps (including myself) so one would think that as a method of payment it might well increase, unless it's proven to be unsafe or have major flaws in the system.
zebedee wrote:
(Ps I didn't register my phone to make any payments, just to receive them and it is my personal mobile phone linked to our business account not the phone number for booking enquiries)
This means that if people use Pingit to "pay a friend" "split a restaurant bill" (as advertised on their website to show how useful it is) and you are the "friend", then they are going to pay your business account rather than your personal account.
So you really need another phone.
And if you have a few small businesses, you'll have to have lots of mobile phones...
Actually I don't think I will need another phone.
I've just taken a second payment by Paym (or the mobile banking app or whatever your bank calls it).
The guest had not used the system to pay anyone other than with another Barclays account before and so she made an initial payment of £1 and I got the payment text straight away.
I logged in to our bank and told her that the payment was recorded in the account under her name and she then sent the remainder of the payment.
I refreshed the balance on the account after a minute or so and like some magic the payment showed up before I even got the text, which was pretty quick in arriving!
I am very impressed with both experiences of this system as it is much quicker than a bank transfer and I always worry that I will get an error on a number when I give out bank account details.
My phone is only registered to receive payments into our business account, not to make any payments.
There is nothing to stop me registering the phone to MAKE payments from the personal account if that is what I ever want to do (unless, that is, someone from LMH knows better????)
Presumably you've already considered this....but if you are a HA advertisier you can set up the "Book Now" option which allows people to pay by CC via a company called HolidayRentPayment.co.uk who are part of HA. They seem to be using the Yapstone payment system.
Now if you are paying for your HA advert rather than doing it on commission, their charge to take to CC payment is 1.4% from UK, 1.9% from europe and 2.4% rest of world. So you could simply direct your enquirers from other sources to HA to make their payments.
). Moreover, the sender has to have a smart phone and use their bank's banking app to access the system.