Card payment machine.

[Cato]

I find that. The last one we did was
Only about £30 in cash.

I also find once they find out you take card they are inclined to spend more

I think a lot of the reason is that it's an absolute ball ache to get cash out now. If you want anything more than a couple of hundred quid for a day out at a fair, show, auto jumble or whatever you have to have another half a day out to visit a branch.

 

[Robotstar5]

I think a lot of the reason is that it's an absolute ball ache to get cash out now. If you want anything more than a couple of hundred quid for a day out at a fair, show, auto jumble or whatever you have to have another half a day out to visit a branch.

If you can find one that's still open

 

[Bullet2012]

If you can find one that's still open

This is why if a customer says, “ what can you do for cash” I normally add £100 , when asked why I then explain , I have to drive into town to find a branch thats open, I have to pay to park, pay to put the cash in the bank and take at least an hour out of my day .

 

[Cato]

.

This is why if a customer says, “ what can you do for cash” I normally add £100 , when asked why I then explain , I have to drive into town to find a branch thats open, I have to pay to park, pay to put the cash in the bank and take at least an hour out of my day .

I apply a 20% surcharge to accept cash payments above £50 for that exact reason.

 

[m_c]

Are there any safeguards for your money if the card machine company go out of business? Or are you just on the list of ordinary creditors and therefore unlikely to see anything back?

Lots. Essentially nearly all client money has to be ring-fenced i.e. not used to prop up the actual processing business.
IIRC it is regulated to some extent by the FSA, but ultimately the credit card companies set the rules for processing companies, and they are very risk averse.

It's a business that relies on miniscule margins and large volumes to make any kind of profit.
I know somebody who co-owns a site that handles card payments, and they only do it as a value added service for their other products. As a standalone venture, if it makes 5 figures of profit on a multimillion pound turnover, it's had a good year.

 

[premmington]

Are there any safeguards for your money if the card machine company go out of business? Or are you just on the list of ordinary creditors and therefore unlikely to see anything back?

Was £85k per merchant account - but we out of Europe now - so ?????? Don't know to be honest.

 

[Cato]

I went with Square in the end. Most of the companies services, charges, pros and cons balance out to make them all very similar so there wasn't much to choose that way. Customer service is pot luck as with most companies and suppliers these days so no discernible difference their either. The choice came down to a) not having any bad reviews b) people on here happy with them and c) my bank does a deal with them.

Time will tell if it's a good or bad decision I guess, but it's not something I can avoid having going forward.

 

[James1979]

I went with Square in the end. Most of the companies services, charges, pros and cons balance out to make them all very similar so there wasn't much to choose that way. Customer service is pot luck as with most companies and suppliers these days so no discernible difference their either. The choice came down to a) not having any bad reviews b) people on here happy with them and c) my bank does a deal with them.

Time will tell if it's a good or bad decision I guess, but it's not something I can avoid having going forward.

Make sure you go through the money laundering procedures fully.

I just started using mine and wasn’t getting the money put in my account. It was sat in the square balance and was to be sent to me ‘tomorrow’ for a few days.

eventually I spoke with them and I hadn’t full done the laundering / security thing so they had my money in Limbo. The ‘tomorrow’ thing was just a status the computer used which caused confusion. I believe they took my feedback and now use a different word.

Nothing against square, totally my fault for not setting it up correctly

 

[Cato]

Make sure you go through the money laundering procedures fully.

I just started using mine and wasn’t getting the money put in my account. It was sat in the square balance and was to be sent to me ‘tomorrow’ for a few days.

eventually I spoke with them and I hadn’t full done the laundering / security thing so they had my money in Limbo. The ‘tomorrow’ thing was just a status the computer used which caused confusion. I believe they took my feedback and now use a different word.

Nothing against square, totally my fault for not setting it up correctly

I've gone through everything that I can from my end on the 'dashboard' it says it's now "waiting for verification from your bank which can take up to four days" I'm not in any particular rush, but four days FFS?

Whatever, I'm sure I can find more pressing matters to go full 'grumpy old git' on.