Remote Point of sale credit card transactions
 

We do a few credit card sales at trade shows and public shows. Our current method is to take the number down on a paper form, transport it back to the office at the end of the show, and enter it manually. We would like to conduct the transaction on the spot, but I've heard bad things about the security and cost of point of sale systems. Anybody had experience with these things?

We tried Intuit Gopayment.
We found the fees were high, and that they limited the amount of our transactions - both a per charge limit and a monthly limit. Not idea when trying to sell high-ticket services or merch.

I have no experience with Square.


I have a device that was provided to me by our current merchant service company (Chase Mobile Checkout) but I have not had a reason to try it out yet. The only thing I know about it is that the fees are supposed to be the same as when I process at my desktop.

I just signed up for Merchant services through Costco. THe company is Elavon. They provided me with a portable reader about the size of a calculator. It will do swipe and insert operations. It connects wirelessly through bluetooth to my phone. The device is a: ingenico ICM 122

Cost is 1.22 percent with regular credit cards, 2% with "rewards" cards.

I recently switched to Elavon after 12 years with Card Services International. I overpaid Card Services something like $50,000 in the past 12 years, compared to what I'm paying Elavon. I've also noticed that lots and lots of merchants worldwide are using Elavon POS systems, so they must be pretty good. I'm happy with them so far.

I've always wondered how these companies can even sell their product.

Imagine going into a sale and telling the customer our POS platform is best!!!

If it's such a POS, why should I buy it??

It connects to your phone - then what? Is there an app that encrypts the data and uploads it to the bank or is it stored in the phone for uploading and finishing the transaction later?

Call your CC service provider they should be able to set you up with a remote unit that connects to your smart phone or an I pad. You will have to use a data connection for these unless you are at a place that has wifi. But also keep in mind the CC compliance laws when using unsecured servers to transmit CC info. Stay away from Square just google reviews for them and you will see why.

Honestly, anything is better than your current method.

Yes, the Elavon solution will be real time as long as you can get a signal.

My wife has been using Square

https://squareup.com/

My chiro uses it to, but a different setup

If i was a customer and you wrote my number down on a piece of paper and said you would take care of it later........



We have tried lots of them and have since switched to square. It's very very easy. It's certainly much more secure than what you are doing now.

You might contact Crossroads of the West gun show folks to see what they have or recommend their vendors use as most of their sellers take credit cards and they are not huge companies?

Thanks, will look into Elavon. But I honestly have to say I trust our people and our system better than sending data off into the ether. Call me paranoid.

We use a wireless credit card reader (actually 3) through a company called UMS Banking.

As far as I know, it is encrypted and uploaded immediately.

Square was pretty expensive compared to Elavon

The question I would ask is similar to what James was talking about, I.E. when the card is swiped, when does the encryption start? I would want it to start in that little box, continue through the comms linkage and then through their application server to the final database. I would ask if their database has field level encryption such as that like Oracle uses as it is pretty solid. Once the machine spits out the receipt, what happens to their copy and does it have your account info in an easily read format, I.E. full card number, ETC?

https://ingenico.us/mobile-solutions/mobile-smart-terminals/icmp.html

According to the specs, it has a dedicated encryption processor on-board. So, it encrypts in the device, then transmits the data.

https://ingenico.us/binaries/content...specs/icmp.png

But what are the other fees? Minimum transaction or batch fees? iirc, there are some gotchas.

In which case Patrick, with occasional sales, might be better off with Square at a flat 3%.

I do some POS work on the side and you wouldn't believe what some folks are paying vs. what they think they're paying. There are so many add-ons, pass-throughs and junk fees, it's ridiculous. My first deal almost didn't happen because we were going to save the customer so much money, she was afraid to show it to her boss and was worried she'd be in trouble for having taken so long to find a better deal. She assured me they were paying 2.9%. When she sent us their merchant statements and we went through them, sure, 2.9% was the number on the top of front page. But when we added up her total fees paid and divided by the total amount charged, she averaged 7-10% in fees. Be very careful when you get a flat rate quote.

PayPal also has a POS system; it comes with a free ballpeen hammer to smash yourself in the nuts.