We’ve seen some astonishing payment innovations during the last two decades. E-commerce means you can take payment 24/7, without opening 24/7. Contactless and Chip & PIN have revolutionised the High St. More recently, innovations like Apple Pay and Google Pay let people make contactless payments with Smartphones.
Change has been fast and far-reaching. Card payments overtook cash in the last quarter of 2017 – a year ahead of industry predictions. And research from UK Finance, Britain’s finance industry trade association, predicts cash will make up 16% of transactions by 2026.
The different types of card payment systems
People like card payments. Cards are lighter (and safer) to carry, and they make payment fast, secure and convenient. So if you want to be paid for doing what you love, you’ll need to accept card payments. There are three ways you can do so:
- Card machines
- Virtual Terminals (for payments online, by phone and email)
- Mobile payments (Apple Pay, Android Pay, Samsung Pay)
Card machines
There are three types of card machine: Countertop, Portable and Mobile. Each is suitable
for a particular kind of business.
- Countertop machines are best for businesses with a fixed point of sale that sits on a counter.
- Portable card machines use wifi or bluetooth and let you take payment to customers. They’re handy for cafes, restaurants and bars.
- Mobile card machines connect to a mobile network so you can take payment while out and about. They’re great for market traders and those who travel to events.
All our card machines feature the latest software, a built-in receipt printer and come ready to sync with your till or EPOS straight from the box. Each accepts contactless, Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay. And if your machine goes wayward (it happens, even to the best) we’ll have a replacement with you in 24 hours.
Payment gateway
A payment gateway is an online version of a card machine. It lets you take payments from:
- A website. Open your site to e-commerce, global commerce and give yourself the ability to accept orders even when you’re asleep in bed.
- The phone. Take payment from customers who can’t make it to your premises, or if you don’t need a shop.
- By email. For customers who want a discreet way to pay, pay-by-link lets you create and email a unique to them.
Mobile payments
Payments made by smartphone are growing. In 2017, people made 561 million payments with Smartphones, and this will increase to 877 million payments a year over the next decade.
Mobile payments are a form of contactless but with a major advantage: customers aren’t restricted by contactless’ £30 transaction limit.
Smartphone payments usually involve extra customer validation (usually a passcode or fingerprint ID) – allowing them to make Higher Value contactless payments, greater than £30. This makes mobile payments ideal for anyone creating bespoke pieces like jewellers, artists and artisans.
Integrated payments
Integrated payments reduce the time you spend on admin and reconciliations. More importantly, they stop revenue loss.
38% of businesses lose revenue every week due to human error. Because many don’t directly link their card machine with their till or EPOS, figures must be keyed in twice, leading to costly mistakes when they differ.
Integrated payments were the unfair advantage for big business for many years, but thanks to cloud-based technology we’re able to offer them to our customers for at no extra cost. Say goodbye to admin, human error and losses and hello to a little more in your pocket.
Merchant Services – how you get paid
We also offer Merchant Services free. Merchant Services are what happens between a transaction and money arriving in your business bank account.
They involve checking customers have the funds available, industry-wide security measures, processing the transaction and deducting fees. This takes 3 – 5 days, and is standard across all payment processors. However, with us, Merchant Services are free – because we believe small businesses deserve all the help they can get.
Choosing a payment system for your business
Your business will dictate the best card machine for your needs: there’s little benefit ordering a mobile card machine if you take all your payments at the till.
We can help you decide which is best suited, and help you choose extra services to make running your business easier. These include auto receipt roll replacement so you never
need worry about running out of receipts again, and help navigating PCI-DSS compliance.
Why Paymentsense?
- We’re one of the fastest-growing payment processing companies in Europe, currently handling over £10 billion in annual transactions for over 70,000 businesses in Britain and Ireland.
- And we’re independent. We’ve gone from start-up to over 70,000 customers in less than a decade, so we know exactly what it’s like to start out on your own.
- We understand the importance of savings for small business, so we combine the buying power of our 70,000+ customers to negotiate better fees for them.
- And we also understand the need to feel supported: our UK-based technical support staff are on call 24/7 – so if anything should go wrong with your card machine, we’ll have it fixed in a flash.
Request a quote
We can give you an accurate quote in next to no time. We just need a few details from you and a quick call. Click here to get started, and find the right payment system for your business.