Cheap Credit card accepting device - Bunnings

Just got some spam for this

Square

1.9%, no ongoing fees also accepts amex for 1.9%

is this some new device that I am not aware of, seems to be too good to be true!

I was paying a monthly fee, and all these other fees with my terminal, however I was paying a much lower rate,

1.9% for amex isnt too bad as well!

 

Interesting. Never heard of it before. Did a bit of research on portable merchant terminals about 6 months ago and ended up going with a CBA Emmy terminal for my husband's business. $30 monthly fee which includes $1500 worth of transactions each month then each transaction after is 1.5%.

 

Oh? Topic for another thread maybe?

 

Can even integrate with Xero and is available from Officeworks too.
I've also seen a paypal based card payment machine too.
Looks like some healthy competition.

 

can anyone think of any drawbacks?

Im thinking the risk of chargebacks might be higher,

you could also use it for non tradie related services or goods

eg if you have your home business or even selling something like on gumtree (obviously gumtree is full of turkeys)

 

An acquaintance mentioned it on fb a little while back - said it was working well for them in their small business (they'd only had it about a fortnight at that stage, I believe). That's all I know, though!

 

It has a gateway to Nigeriancardscammers.co.ng

 

Square is hugely successful in states with small business and has been there for years. The founder is also one of the founders of Twitter.

 

Do you guys (and girls!) think it's worth paying 1.9% of every transaction to ensure you get paid straight away? I currently get paid by bank transfer from most of my clients and I've found most clients pay their invoice within 7 days but I do get clients who are late with payments, not sure weather it's worth paying 1.9% for the benefit of having card facilities. Would you prefer your tradesmen to have the option to pay by card or do you feel that paying by bank transfer is easy enough? I guess I could pass the fee on to clients if they want to pay by card but I can't see many people taking this option.

 

Yes!

We didn't have merchant facilities for about 6 weeks a few months ago and outstanding invoices peaked at $9.5k. My other half had to become debt collector and the amount of time spent on phone calls and emails hassling people to pay their invoices would have been way more than what the merchant fee would have been should he have been able to collect payment on the day.

People like to be able to pay by credit card too which you can't do (without cash advance fee) via bank transfer.

Now we've had the merchant facilities back for a couple of months outstanding invoices is down to ~$2k which is mainly body corps and commercial jobs.

 

I'm in a wholesale industry where half of the retailers (my customers) pay with credit card. Its a necessary evil and I wouldn't dream of charging the surcharge. I would much rather have the money in my bank account at a mere 1.15% fee than face the debt collection route.

 

I can only assume that for some tight margin industires, 1.5% would be quite a noticeable differnece,

lets say for IT wholesalers/retailers

 

I also looked into it ages ago and it is ideal for small business like myself that are operating out and about. Plus its linked to xero which I liked. Now I go out , and do the jobs, and get paid instantly on most occasions or cash. Im only a small one man band doing maintenance stuff. What you also have to factor in is you also need wifi as well, so added cost...but not probs with me....but Ill see how it is after 6 months of use..

 

what about fraud ie charge backs?

if the bill was thousands id be quite worried getting one

 

Going to see if Bunnings still sell them... my holiday let business is turning more business-like and serious...

 

I listed a property on booking.com and within the first 12 hours, got 2 bookings....