We run a B&B and gite business in Tarn et Garonne and feel its time we should start taking credit card payments. We need to take deposits to hold rooms and also want to be able to take card payments for longer bookings and additional services used.
I do not want to go down the route of paying monthly fee and paying a contract as I am sure it will not be a cost effective option for us. We only are really likely to use the card machine for a few months of the year.
I have looked at some of the mobile payment card readers that can be used with iphones and android devices like Izettle, Intuit and the more popular Paypal Here. All offer services in UK, Canada, USA and other European countries, but not in France it seems............. Is there something I don't know? Is there a ruling within the French banking system that makes it difficult for these companies to offer their service here? I thought about registering for a UK account with Paypal Here as I still have my UK bank account and could easily take transactions into it, but I need a UK mobile phone number for it to work. I have one but think that there might be a problem if the system is trying to process a payment for a card and the call is being generated for payment from France......
Does anyone know anything about this subject that could help please? I would like a something that works with my iphone either via bluetooth or wifi. Mobile phone signal is dodgy here and do not think it realistic or professional to run up the garden each time to find a phone signal with a customers card to process a card payment!
Perhaps I was looking on the uk site. I will look again. Thanks one and all for the valuable info.
Alison said that worldpay only seem to be offering it in UK. We live in Southern Burgundy and offer it to our guests as a means if payment, so I find that rather strange.
Perhaps you could explain your last comment?
IT sounded a little sharp.
We live in Southern Burgundy not UK.
simon really
But surely that would be very noticeable as the money leaks out,
Are you able to offer me an example how this would really work....
I will look at world play.
I WILL dismiss anyone suggestion without looking into it,
Ah yes Barbara, but when they say they will pay by bank transfer and take longer to do it than they said, you are not sure whether or not they have changed their mind. We are holding the booking dates open for them, which means that other people interested in the same dates don’t bother to enquire.
Jane I have been on the worldpay site and it looks like they are just offering it in the UK, like Paypal etc...
I think based on all the comments made here I will open a French paypal account and take it from there, however, I would have liked a payment swipe option too, but hey ho...
BUT,of course it is not available on credit.
I understand what you are saying but there is nothing more simple than the bank transfer.
Most of my transfers are for reasonable amounts and the clarity and speed of transactions
wins for me.
No charge backs.
No sign of fraud..
We have looked at using Paypal and found that Worldpay was much more helpful from our point of view.
When the heartbleed virus was first in the news my OH rang their technical support and they called him back to assure him that were not affected.
We have a virtual terminal and that has worked well, until our last booking who wanted to pay by bank transfer. and you are left waiting to see if the money shows up in your account.
We would prefer not to have to pay a percentage, but the facility to pay by card is what is wanted by the customer nowadays.
a bit of a problem.
I have stopped taking credit cards.
For lots of reasons. Sometimes the machine fails due to
probs with the tel line/internet and it is difficult to
sort things out when the client is standing by the machine in a great
hurry to leave and you need payment.
Sadly, having dealt with the general public for many years I AM
not so trusting. Making a living means making good decisions.
For me DIRECT debit is the answer.
if the client wants the room for a few days or a week.....then
the will be happy to pay.
For me it is as simple as that.
After all something has to be simple.
Hi Tracy, I will research this, thanks
Thanks for the info Simon.
I do not think our turnover will warrant paying a monthly fee, which is why I was looking at either a free card reader (with intuit) or buying the card reader out right for £99 and then pay a sliding scale of fees depending on how much we use it. I have a UK paypal account but perhaps should consider opening a French one to eliminate exchange rate costs or just get people to do a bank transfer, however some older people are not keen on doing this and just want to hand over a card to pay, quickly and easily.
Will take a look at the paypal FR site to see how it works if someone wants to pay by card here.
i use Paypal here in France but it costs a fortune. Sure there is no monthly fee but it is very expensive percentage wise. Apparently LYDIA is the way forward but have not come across anyone that uses it yet.