Mar12

After making a decision it was about time I started taking card payments I decided to call my own bank to see if I could sort out a mobile terminal of some sort. I was shocked at the cost involved they wanted an upfront payment of £199 for the actual terminal and a minimum of £35 pound a month for transactions. So for example if you only processed enough payments for the processing fees to be £20 the bank still wanted £35. The percentage per transaction was also quite high and differed depending on which type of card was being processed and they wanted me to sign a minimum 12 month contract. After about 30 minutes on the phone they said I would receive some forms in the post to sign and send back. When the pack arrived there were about 30 sheets to read sign and send back, one set of papers for opening a merchant account and one set for the mobile terminal contract and fees ect. It looked like a lot of hassle so the papers were put to one side and forgotten about.

I was speaking to a locksmith in Leeds about taking card payments who mentioned Payatrader. I had already heard them mentioned on the island locks forum quite a few times so decided to give them a call. The lady on the phone was very helpful and explained the set up fee was only £99 with no contract. Also there was no need for a merchant account either and payments could be taken through mobile phone while at the customer’s property so there was no need to pay for a terminal.

I signed up on line as I couldn’t do it over the phone, I had to fill in a few on line forms but nothing major just the usual name, address and company details etc. The application was accepted within just a couple of minutes and I was now able to start taking payments immediately. I couldn’t believe how easy it was compared to signing up with the bank.

I’ve been using payatrader for about 3 months now and I have taken a decent number of payments through it. The service allows for payments to be taken in a number of different ways, my preferred method is to use their smart phone friendly website on my iPhone. They don’t actually have an app but if you save the website to the home screen you can have an icon which appears just like an app would on the screen.  All you need to do is open the site enter your payatrader account number and you’re ready to take the payment. It also gives you the option to enter the customers email address so a receipt can be instantly sent to them. The payment is taken using your phones 3G connection. If you can’t get a 3G reception where you are working you could just ask to connect your phone to the customer’s broadband and take the payment using WIFI. If there is no way of getting an internet connection whilst on site you can call pay a traders 24 hour number and they will take the payment for you over there phone. When you call you speak to a real advisor not just an automated message.  The phone support combined with the ability to take payments through 3G or WIFI means there won’t be many situations where you can’t take payment on site, you would be unlucky to be working in an area that had no phone signal at all no 3G reception and the customer didn’t have either broadband or a land line you could use.

After you have signed up you also get access to some HTML icons you can add to your webpages to let people know you take card payments. The icons contain a link which allows customers to hit the icon which is linked with your payatrader account and pay you on line through your site. I have land lords from out of town who pay me this way and it works perfectly. As soon as payment is made you receive a text message telling you the amount that has been paid and who the payment was from.

The processing fees are very reasonable, between 2.3% and 2.9% for MasterCard and Visa, and automatically reduce based on your weekly card turnover ensuring you always get their best rate. Amex is also accepted but costs a flat 2.95%. Pay a trader sends an email on a Tuesday advising of any money which is due to be paid into your account that week and the payment goes into your bank account on a Thursday. One thing I really like is they take their percentage off before you receive your money so there is no monthly bill to pay for processing fees. You can access your on line account any time to access your statements and the payment status for each transaction, it will show as either pending or completed. Any payment which is made before midnight on Friday will be paid the following Thursday. Any payment made after midnight Friday will be paid the week after so for example if you take a payment on a Saturday you will need to wait about 12 days for the money to hit your bank account. It sounds like a long time but if a customer paid you by cheque and you didn’t pay it into the bank straight away you could end up waiting nearly the same length of time anyway and there’s always the risk the cheque could bounce.

For me pay a trader is the perfect way to take payments as a locksmith on the move, cheap, flexible and easy to use. A lot of the jobs we do are emergency’s which the customer was not expecting so they don’t always have enough cash lying around or a cheque book to pay you this makes pay a trader the ideal solution.

If you are interested in using this service, join using referral code 106222301 this will reduce your application fee by £15! https://www.payatrader.com/register.php

 

 

One Response to Is Payatrader any good for locksmiths?

 
 
 

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