Merch card machines

[Combed20]

Hi all

 

 Looking for peoples thoughts on investing in a card machine for merch sales. Can they be linked to a personal account? - or do we need to open a band bank account?

Do these increase sales enough to nullify the fee's you incur?

 All thoughts/experiences greatly recieved 

 

[BigRedX]

One of my bands has a SumUp. There are nearly always deals available where if you get a reference from a current SumUp user you get the device at a discount (half price IIRC) and they get £10 added to their SumUp account.

 

However with the right phone, the latest version doesn't even need the actual card reader as the transaction can be done phone-to-phone which is even more convenient for everyone. You don't need a business account, but if you want to keep the merch funds separate from your personal finances you can always set up one of the those Starling (or similar) accounts that are being advertised and don't actually cost you anything.

 

IMO the tiny fees charged are nullified the first time you make a sale to someone who doesn't have cash on them, and these people are becoming more common with every gig. The other band I'm in haven't yet sorted themselves out with a card reader and consequently they have not been selling as much merch recently.

Edited February 25 by BigRedX

[Woodwind]

1 minute ago, BigRedX said:

 

 

IMO the tiny fees charged are nullified the first time you make a sale to someone who doesn't have cash on them, and these people are becoming more common with every gig. The other band I'm in haven't yet sorted themselves out with a card reader and consequently they have not been selling as much merch recently.

 

I'm a long time sumup user, but they are all much of a muchness really.

I think Izettle has a feature that's good for buskers where you can have a preset tap function ie you set it at 2quid and the machine will automatically do a transaction for £2 when a punter taps their card.

 

Exactly as BigRedX says the 2.5% or whatever it is now that sumup take becomes moot when you sell merch you wouldn't have otherwise.

 

That said when I played in Edinburgh last year more people had cash than any other show I've played in the last few years. I still have a load of Scottish £10 and £20 notes that I haven't been able to get to a bank to pay in yet 🤣

[Combed20]

2 hours ago, BigRedX said:

One of my bands has a SumUp. There are nearly always deals available where if you get a reference from a current SumUp user you get the device at a discount (half price IIRC) and they get £10 added to their SumUp account.

 

However with the right phone, the latest version doesn't even need the actual card reader as the transaction can be done phone-to-phone which is even more convenient for everyone. You don't need a business account, but if you want to keep the merch funds separate from your personal finances you can always set up one of the those Starling (or similar) accounts that are being advertised and don't actually cost you anything.

 

IMO the tiny fees charged are nullified the first time you make a sale to someone who doesn't have cash on them, and these people are becoming more common with every gig. The other band I'm in haven't yet sorted themselves out with a card reader and consequently they have not been selling as much merch recently.

Thanks, that's really useful. One further question - will I need to open a band bank account to use it?

[JoeEvans]

Zettle is a good system too, as mentioned above the fees are irrelevant compared to the extra sales you'll make.

All these systems keep online records of sales, so you could run the money into a band member's personal account in the knowledge that there's a record of all sales to ensure fair sharing of income afterwards.

[TheRev]

We use iZettle. It needs to be linked to a bank account, but that can be your personal account or band/business account.

[acidbass]

Square is pretty good, used it for merch before. It's simple and does the job well.

[Gasman]

+1 for Square!

[police squad]

we use iZettle at work. I had a customer that owed nearly £10K who insisted he could pay if we took a card.

I spent 35 quid IIRC on the iZettle thing and he paid straight away. It cost us some fees but otherwise I didn't have much choice

we still use it now. It's very good

[taunton-hobbit]

A friend of mine has used SumUp for 3 years or so & loves it - I used a World Pay  counter terminal for ten years - very reliable, but extortionately expensive (never again).

If I decide to go back to retail, I will use SumUp or similar, the world has moved on, thank goodness!

 

😎

 

To get some perspective, back in the day Lloyds made me wait two years before graciously letting me rent a terminal 

Edited February 26 by taunton-hobbit

[mike257]

Of the common brands, Zettle seems to have the best app features, reporting etc. Also has robust integration with WooCommerce, so if you sell from an online store too you can tie them together. 

 

Worth noting that if you tour abroad, none of these will work for you in other territories and you'll need a different solution. 

[Bolo]

A friend in an active touring rockabilly band said sales have gone up at least 35% since getting a card reader.

[Jack]

My wife has just moved from sumup to square after 3 years with sumup. When there's a problem (hardware in her case) they just don't want to know. 

[Woodwind]

50 minutes ago, Jack said:

My wife has just moved from sumup to square after 3 years with sumup. When there's a problem (hardware in her case) they just don't want to know. 

 

Good info, thank you.

Touch wood I've never needed their support.

[Jack]

21 hours ago, Woodwind said:

 

Good info, thank you.

Touch wood I've never needed their support.

Admittedly a sample size of only 1.

 

But then, they've been useless 100% of the time we've needed them. Statistics, eh?

[Daz39]

We use Sumups in my wife's business. One older machine that needs the phone app to connect, another one is Solo and can do that or uses it's own 4G to connect. I think they charge 1.69% fees.

On a busy market you can have signal problems if everyone's hammering the nearest mast, and occasionally the actual app will go down, but from speaking to other traders who use all of the available products: Square, iZettle etc. they're all about as reliable as each other. We have so many customers who pay with card or phone contactless and don't carry cash - especially at festivals or fairs. More regular markets or events in town centres ted to be a mix of cash and card.

[BigRedX]

1 minute ago, Daz39 said:

On a busy market you can have signal problems if everyone's hammering the nearest mast, and occasionally the actual app will go down, but from speaking to other traders who use all of the available products: Square, iZettle etc. they're all about as reliable as each other. We have so many customers who pay with card or phone contactless and don't carry cash - especially at festivals or fairs. More regular markets or events in town centres ted to be a mix of cash and card.

 

I was just about to say exactly the same thing.

 

My girlfriend does the WGW market and despite there being a dedicated WiFi access point for stall holders there are always problems when it's very busy and everyone is using their card readers. At the October weekend she discovered there was a new SumUp update that allowed her to bypass the card reader entirely and use her phone as a contactless reader. This system turned out to be much more reliable maybe because it removes one level of wireless connectivity - between the phone and SumUp machine? 

[KevL]

Dojo is another brand to consider, I know a few people who use it and are happy, although, as mentioned, all these operators are competing with each other so will have to keep their costs and features similar. 

 

Also as mentioned, you really need to have a card reader for even a small amount of sales as so many people - even tech-dinosaurs such as me - pay electronically. It doesn't prevent people still being able to pay in cash. This latter point is one that I futilely make to my barber: she stubbornly remains cash-only, her argument being that "a lot of her customers like paying in cash". Well, they obviously will as there is no option. I have said that she'd be surprised by the number who would pay electronically if it were an option, plus the benefits of not handling cash (bank runs, having loads of change etc.) but she won't have it...

 

Let us know what you end up with and how you get on. 

 

[Dad3353]

'Cash only' is often associated with not all of the receipts being declared. Not always, of course, and the Authorities are aware of these 'leaks', and use other, parallel, methods for checking, such as correlating raw materials bought and declared sales. Just sayin'. 

[Jack]

1 hour ago, BigRedX said:

 

I was just about to say exactly the same thing.

 

My girlfriend does the WGW market and despite there being a dedicated WiFi access point for stall holders there are always problems when it's very busy and everyone is using their card readers. At the October weekend she discovered there was a new SumUp update that allowed her to bypass the card reader entirely and use her phone as a contactless reader. This system turned out to be much more reliable maybe because it removes one level of wireless connectivity - between the phone and SumUp machine? 

My wife has gone that route before as well when her Sumup was playing up, but we feel it looks a little less professional. Agreed that it's actually better though. We regularly do an alternative market that's all witches, bedroom toys, tattoos, exotic dancers, that kind of thing. You want to know who has the best card machines? Drag queens and sex workers. They are NOT missing a tip. If you don't have any cash they'll whip out a car reader from somewhere that I don't want to think about. They all use either Sumup or Square, with a bias towards Sumup. It just didn't work for us.

[Combed20]

Thanks for all the replies. I previously looked at sumup, but the band don't have a business account, so sumup wouldn't work for us. I do a lot if the 'office' stuff for the band, and loathe the thought of setting us up as a business in my name and add more 'work' - but I don't think it'd improve sales.

 

[Daz39]

1 hour ago, Combed20 said:

Thanks for all the replies. I previously looked at sumup, but the band don't have a business account, so sumup wouldn't work for us. I do a lot if the 'office' stuff for the band, and loathe the thought of setting us up as a business in my name and add more 'work' - but I don't think it'd improve sales.

 

Doesn’t need to be a ‘Business account’ just a named account. My Wife started with just using her current account with it, before opening one for the business and transferring the connection.

Edited February 29 by Daz39

[Woodwind]

3 hours ago, Combed20 said:

Thanks for all the replies. I previously looked at sumup, but the band don't have a business account, so sumup wouldn't work for us. I do a lot if the 'office' stuff for the band, and loathe the thought of setting us up as a business in my name and add more 'work' - but I don't think it'd improve sales.

 

 

Admittedly I play solo, but just use my current account for all Sumup transactions.

Don't worry about a business account

[gjones]

On 25/02/2024 at 17:30, Woodwind said:

 

I'm a long time sumup user, but they are all much of a muchness really.

I think Izettle has a feature that's good for buskers where you can have a preset tap function ie you set it at 2quid and the machine will automatically do a transaction for £2 when a punter taps their card.

 

Exactly as BigRedX says the 2.5% or whatever it is now that sumup take becomes moot when you sell merch you wouldn't have otherwise.

 

That said when I played in Edinburgh last year more people had cash than any other show I've played in the last few years. I still have a load of Scottish £10 and £20 notes that I haven't been able to get to a bank to pay in yet 🤣

 

[Woodwind]

10 hours ago, gjones said:

 

 

🤣🤣

 

Sadly most of the businesses I frequent with any regularity no longer take cash at all so I can't even have the fun of this