Last week I read some comments about trade stands at the Hobson's Bay
>exhibition no longer accepting credit cards and I encountered a similar
>problem last weekend at the Canberra exhibition. The trader explained
>that the vendor fees had gone up from something like $160 per year to
>$220 per month, so they had simply stopped accepting cards.
WTF? 8-) I have a Commbank 'Comm 2000' EFTPOS terminal here which I use for>exhibition no longer accepting credit cards and I encountered a similar
>problem last weekend at the Canberra exhibition. The trader explained
>that the vendor fees had gone up from something like $160 per year to
>$220 per month, so they had simply stopped accepting cards.
my computer business, and unless those prices you've quoted are for some
super-high-tech wireless EFTPOS terminal, they're absurd. Comm Bank charges
me A$29.70 per month for the terminal service fee - nowhere near the figures
you have quoted. I'd get it cheaper if I'd signed up for a 4-year contract
in January this year and accepted a massive fee to cancel the contract or
exit when it next expires, but I opted not to do that. 8-)
I would assume the wireless terminals (which I've seen a couple of outlets
use at Modelling the Railways of NSW conventions in the past few years) have
a higher monthly fee.
While I fully symphathise with the situation, which hits the smaller
>traders the hardest, it is not very helpful if you want to buy an
>expensive item or many items which add up to a substantial total. I, and
>I'm sure a lot of other people, just don't carry around large amounts of >cash.
>Is there a solution?
As others have said, using a debit card if the traders can accept those.>traders the hardest, it is not very helpful if you want to buy an
>expensive item or many items which add up to a substantial total. I, and
>I'm sure a lot of other people, just don't carry around large amounts of >cash.
>Is there a solution?
Most EFTPOS terminals accept debit cards and credit cards as if they are one
and the same - it's just the way the bank hosting the buyer's account
processes the sale that it different.
Regards,
Craig.
PS. I've cross-posted to rec.models.railroad since I'm curious to get some
insight on this issue with regard to exhibitions in the USA. I don't know if
the banking rules for EFTPOS, etc. are the same or similar to those here in
Australia. How do US model railway/railroad suppliers deal with accepting
(or not accepting) payments by credit card at exhibitions?