Ideal Card Payment Machines For Small Businesses

Today, we all live in an increasingly cashless society which means that if your business still does not take card payments then you can really miss out on vital sales. On the other hand, if you do take card payments then maybe you're not happy with the rates that you pay, or perhaps the support isn't quite what you hoped for. Either way, this blog will really help.

So there is a wide range of card machines available for small businesses and they all take chip and pin payments, plus contactless payments too - but which one is going to be ideal for your small business?

This is easy to answer, but it's important to know that the price includes an optional upfront fee or monthly fee, plus small charges for processing payments. The charges can cover a range of things from the types of cards that are being used right down to monthly rental charges and more. Typically though, these charges are usually inexpensive.

So let's look at the main cost, the price of the card terminal. Overall there are two prices to look at here, the upfront charge and the contract rental charge. It's important to know, because if you get a, what's commonly known, as a "pay as you go" card machine then the price for the card terminal is an upfront charge and that's it. Whereas, if you purchase a card terminal that is on a contract, then typically there's no upfront fee, but just an affordable monthly charge instead.

The additional cost to think about is what are known as transaction fees (or transaction charges) these are usually applied every time you take a card payment (either chip and pin, contactless, Apple Pay, Google Pay or Samsung Pay). The fee is estimated to start from 1.5% but rarely doesn't go over 3%.

Other fees to consider include refund charges. A refund charge is issued when you process a refund from a customer. It's worth noting that whilst refunds are unavoidable, if they exceed a particular percentage then it be the case that charges for refunds may increase. Clearly, it's the law to offer refunds, but if you find that refunds start increasing then it's something to look into.

Also worth mentioning here is card not present (often referred to CNP) charges too. So if a business takes a payment that's either over the phone which is often referred to as a MOTO (Mail Order / Telephone Order), or online or a recurring subscription then a card not present fee will apply.