Small Print on Debit/Credit card machines.

[AlicesLoft]

Recently signed up to a company who were recommended on this forum at what i considered a good rate.The basic rental was €15 per month plus vat with the usual % charges on each transaction.After the 3 month this amount increased to €48 ( €30 minimum surcharge even if no transactions) .On querying this i was informed it was in the terms and conditions .Is this the normal rate ???Is there any better ??Has anyone else had this problem??

[MargaretinBavaria]

There is an alternative! We have not used a credit card machine for about 5 years. Instead we do all credit card charging online, which means we can do bookings from anywhere, not just where the machine is. The commission is a little higher, but no machine costs.

[gerardlovett]

How do you do that? Paypal or something?

[AlicesLoft]

Hi Margaret,could you or any of our fellow Tourism providers get back to me about an alternative to theses machines .In our present climate we have to reduce costs and avoiding a monthly rental change would be most welcome.If we could process Bookings at Alice's Loft & Cottages (http://www.alicesloft.com) on line or through a 3rd party would be the way to go ,let us know how !!

[MargaretinBavaria]

We were using Barclays Merchant Services when we had the machine. We then found out that they do something called ePDQ, which just involves logging into a website and putting in passwords and then charging the amount to the guest's credit card. It has a higher commission but no monthly fee for the machine, although there is a monthly £20 management fee.
We were forced to do it because we were spending most of our time at our holiday lets in Germany and could not just take the machine and plug it in (we were travelling a lot as well). So the extra commission was worth it to us to have the flexibility. It would not suit everybody. You would have to work out how the cost would be compared with your present system.
Once the banks in the UK have sorted out SEPA, we will try to switch as many people as possible onto that because it costs almost nothing. We would still need to take payment by card from US and Australian guests.