My parish council runs a very popular pop-up pub on a non-profit basis. Unfortunately they only take cash.
Is there a simple alternative for processing card payments (eg Square) that anyone has experience with that I can recommend to them? Hate using cash and never have any with me.
Yes. I thought about getting a sum-up machine for a one-off bike race I was running that was cash entries on the day. Not expensive to buy the basic card reader and reasonable transaction fees. Here. There's Zettle too, but it's a touch more expensive.
edit - sorry, you wanted actual experience. Well I didn't buy one so not quite what you wanted. I've also seen people just putting their PayPal e-mail address on a sign and getting people to pay on their mobile that way. It's a bit slower and faffier for the customer.
I have a customer who's bought into at least 3 different systems for some reason 😂 They all work, & I think the fees are broadly similar. If multiple people are using it, don't go for one that's Bluetooth only - it's possible to use it with multiple peoples' phones, but it's extra hassle pairing it etc. If you've got WiFi available then a WiFi one will be fine - in a pinch you can also use a hotspot from a phone, but more hassle especially if not everyone is tech savvy. If there's no Wifi or you might want to use it elsewhere where there isn't any, the ones that use mobile networks are the simplest - you just turn them on & they work. My customer has the Zettle cellular one - there's no SIM card/contract etc to worry about, I guess the mobile connectivity cost is all built into the fees!
my old man has a sum up for their bed and breakfast.
If he can operate it - anyone can.
There are 3 different types of SumUp though with different connectivity - as explained above. The cellulars are foolproof, the BT ones can (and do, IME) trip technophobes up.my old man has a sum up for their bed and breakfast.
Use Sumup and Zettle.
Both great, personally prefer the feel of the terminals with Zettle, especially when comparing each Co’s cheapest option
No contracts, large costs or risk with either option. Both perfect for what you need.
I use Zettle - works fine for me. As has been mentioned though they do need to tied to a mobile so no point having the app on someones phone who disappears every 5 minutes! 🙂
not to labour the point but - no, not necessarily!! Zettle do a cellular option, which is the one to go for if you want the minimum of fuss. (I personally only have the Zettle BT terminal, as only I ever use it, it's not let me down yet!)As has been mentioned though they do need to tied to a mobile
Yes, but the G4/G3 reader is a lot more expensive. And if it's for occasional use maybe not worth the extra £££s.
My wife had the iZettle (now PayPal?)sumup and Square. The only one which has been zero hassle is Square.
When is events with her I’m always inundated with my card reader isn’t working requests. The worst are paypal (izettle) the least Square.
I can almost guarantee this is down to user error (sorry!) All the systems are very reliable, although it's true some are more user-friendly than others. (that said, the original PayPal terminal [I]was[/I] garbage, but then they bought out Zettle and you just use that now, which works great!)When is events with her I’m always inundated with my card reader isn’t working requests. The worst are paypal (izettle) the least Square.
I got a Square card reader for selling my art. It is paired to my phone app.
I type in the amount on the app or select a predefined stock item, hit confirm, the customer taps their card or enters their PIN on the app and everything is done.
Very easy to use. The only time I had a problem was when some Android update changed some security setting so the card reader couldn't communicate properly but it was easy to reset and then all was fine again.
looking at my credit card
ZTL / iZ / sumup seem to be the popular ones,
+1 for Zettle. We use it at our monthly village pop-up pub and it's dead easy.
We use the Sum-Up solo terminal for outside bar events - has largely been hassle free, the one thing that did nearly catch us out was that it needs a secured wifi connection to connect to their servers.
I think it's approx £100 and has its own cell connection if you don't have wifi. We decided that for us, it was better than having to rely on a phone for the connection. Payments are next day and the % fee is small. There's much cheaper sum-up units if you're happy to use your phone for the connection
Went for sum-up largely based on recommendations from a number of friends who run food trucks, etc.
