credit card service recomendations.

donegal.

Hi,
I have a small shop and don't yet accept credit card payments.
But now i think the loss of sales is costing more than the expense of taking cards.


Does any one have any recommendations on who I should use? The cost would be a big issue .
I think sales through cards would be less than €2000 pm.

I'm banking with BOI so i might go with them as the money will be in my account faster.

thanks

jimmii

For that sort of amount you would want something without a monthly fee. I use SumUp as a back up device and for smaller transactions there is no monthly fee. Once you buy the device it then just costs 1.95% per transaction it is quite slow compared to other companies for when you actually receive the cash at 3/4 working days. Once you are doing 5k+ a month then there are likely to be cheaper options but for €2k/month its probably as cheap as its going to get. The customer service isn't great but when my device did go faulty it just took an email and a new device was posted out the next day.

delahuntv

Monthly fees are usually for the machine rental - about €15/month.

Some do charge a minimum monthly fee of €30, so if card sales were €2k - €3k a month (you'd be surprised at how many will choose card if you offer it), you'd be at or a little above the monthly fee.


BOI themselves don;t offer a service, but have an agreement with Elavon. Target a 1.25% - 1.5% commission rate and less than 15c on debit cards.

BTW - lodging cash costs about 45c / €100, so take this into account too.

user1842

I posted the below on another thread, may be of help:

The cost of accepting cards varies wildly. Big merchants can negotiate better deals with acquirers (a bank or financial institution that processes credit or debit card payments on behalf of a merchant). Small merchants tend to pay more due to low volumes.

Card charges per transaction for merchants are broken down as follows:

Interchange = money that goes straight to the bank that issued the purchasing debit or credit card. Usually this is 10c for debit cards transactions over €15, 5c between €2 and €15 and 1c under €2 (under €2 has to be contactless). For credit cards its 0.55% (will be 0.3%, EU directive). Assuming VISA card scheme and chip and pin.

Scheme fee = money that goes to VISA or MasterCard for each transaction. Based on volume (higher volume = lower fee). Usually very low, under 1c per transaction.

Acquirer margin = the money the acquirer tacks on every transaction for their costs and profit.

I do not include fixed monthly costs as these costs do not pose a barrier to accepting cards for low value payments as the merchant pays them anyway.

Now any merchant can look at their card bill and see if their acquirer is charging them excessively. If they are ask for a reduction or change acquirer.

They should be no reason why merchants do not accept card payments for low value transactions especially now that contactless has arrived.

Note the main acquirers in Ireland are AIBMS (no current affiliation with the bank but AIB own part of the company),
Elavon and Worldpay.

I would not ask your bank about this as they will forward you on to either of the above acquirers (they tend to have unspoken agreements on referring customers) who may not give you the best deal.

Shop around and also you dont have to go with an Irish based acquirer.

Note that the money will not be in you account faster based on the bank you bank with.