[peter maybury]

It has come to my attention recently that transax has been charging us £20 a month in addition to the rental charge that was agreed when we first took out the agreement. We have been paying this charge for 12 months. When I have spoken to transax about this they have said that we were notified of this additional cost in writing via email. I have checked through our email history for the time that they said that it was sent and have found no such notification.
This is something that apparently a lot of companies do after you using their services for 12 months.
I am going trying to get the extra costs refunded but others that offer credit card facilities might like to check their invoices to see that the same has not happened to them.
The fact that we have been paying this charge for 12 months already is nothing other than bad administration as we should have picked it up before now, I do feel a little robbed.
The financial industry are probably the biggest of all the crooks.
Peter
www.carpetcleanercardiff.com

[Len Gribble]

Peter

Have you checked your spam box (I don’t its spam) but I watch ever penny in and out on my accounts bit like Shaun sad I know

Recently had an issue re debit on wife account (is she on the ball with hers) car insurance she changed provider (and they kept her card details on file) excuse a computer glitch

[AshWhite]

Peter, I've had something similar - but @ £10/month - for a card machine which is not yet 12 months old.

When I questioned it, they said it was something to do with managing some controls/risks on my behalf. I could opt out of it - a process I started but cut short because there are pages and pages of red tape to get through.

I will get through it, but I'll need to set aside a few hours to do it.

My card machine is through streamline.

[John Kelly]

What a lot of people arent aware of when taking on a card machine is that you have to be PCI complient.  This a security protocol put in place by the card issuing industry and is designed to prevent fraud. If you have not got this in place then they will charge you an additional monthly fee until you become complient. This is serious stuff and you cant ignore it. The fines are massive starting at around 10k permonth if you are responsible for a security breach. This could be someone using your machine fraudulently or gleaning card details as they are transmitted.
As Ash says it is a complete ball ache and its advisable to get a third party to help you comply. To not do it is folly of the highest degree. Just do seach for PCI non complience fines. You could loose everthing.

[carpet_care]

I am also with streamline which my bank the rbs advised i used after i had been approached by retail merchant services.

I decided to use streamline as the payements go straight into my account rather than via santander which would of been the case with retail.

The costs where made pretty clear to me that it would be £33.00 a month for the mobile terminal then an extra £15.00 a month charge if i didnt hit a certain target each month to cover there minimum interest figure.

I wasnt told about the insurance though and it was sprung on me after the 1st 3 months basically saying if i didnt pay £38.00 and fill this online form in which wasnt an easy process to sort out i would be penalised the extra £10.00 a month until i did.

I just thought it was a bit naughty the way this wasnt explained and made clear from the start


  Andy Locke.

[derek west]

I've looked into every single company offering this service and each one makes it sound cheaper than the last but add charges somewhere else to get there money back.

rental charge
set up fee
pci fee
Minimum monthly charge fee
phone call charges
transaction fee's
insurance fee
commercial cards have a higher charge rate
some other card types are higher i.e. american express etc...

i even had one guy swearing that that was it, he's told me every charge there is and thats what i'll pay, i then mentioned pci to him, and he said "oh yes but that doesn't go to us, thats a seperate matter" 

also be carefull that your length of contract with them is not different from the length of contract with the equipment, some companies get you to rent the card reader from a different company without telling you. and they then say that your only tied in with them for a year, but forget to tell you that the equipment is rented for 5 years.

its a minefield out there i tell ya, so do your homework, read the small print and get everything in writing from the rep.

[John Kelly]

Get PCI complient. You usually get 12 months grace to achieve this. After this they will charge you extra for the risk but you will also be wide open to horrendous fines. This is serious stuff and I have only been advised myself recently. You must be PCI compliant it is not an option to not be. They can take your business, your house the lot if anything fraudulent happens and you are not compliant. Look into it.
Its a minefield but I hear that the card companies are going to start enforcing this soon.

http://ask.barclaycard.co.uk/business/allfaqs/1_fraud_security/fines_2

[William Sharpe]

Unless your a big company is the taking of credit cards worth it? My commercial custies pay by BACS, estate agents pay direct into my account and domestic cash or cheque I can count on my one hand the times ive been asked if i accept credit cards, they have still booked me without a problem. There always seems to be more issues with CC that I wonder if its worth all the agro and additional admin?? I guess the area youn work in may also come into the picture! I think i'll stay as I am for the mo and not have the agro!!!!

[AshWhite]

FWIW, If I could go back, I wouldn't have bothered with a card machine.

It's got me a few extra jobs, but not enough to cover what I've paid in charges/rental fees.

[*Hector*]

Cash is King .... 

for anything else there is always paypal....

[Carpet Dawg]

What the three posters above have said is the reason I haven't bothered with taking cc payments. Why over complicate things.

[M.Acorn]

Did my pci dss compliance thingy the other day,god knows what half of it meant !! Have to tick yes to about 40 odd questions.
Or they charge you an extra 0.15% per transaction.Have to do this every year now,did not enjoy it at all

[Simon@arenaclean]

More people are now paying us by bacs but that's only because we tell them it's possible, and I normally do it at the quote stage otherwise cash or cheque. I just make sure they know the options so they can sort themselves out.

[bennymon]

Only 2 customers have asked if I take cards in the last year so I'm not going to bother yet

[JandS]

I've had it in place 9 months now with payatrader.
Number of transactions so far....a big fat 0

[davep]

I take min £150 a week on mine with payatrader

[Mark_Jubb]

Like some others, I've only been asked a couple of times about card payment, cheques, cash or BACS from commercials has worked so for me so far.

[clinton]

Same as some other posts above.

Dont remember the last time i was asked if i took cards.

Get paid bacs or into our account with commercial work.

[davep]

Clinton put it on your sites you take cards

Then you'll get custys that want to use the card

Simples 

[peter maybury]

The charges that I have been hit with are nothing to do with pci. I have cancelled my contract with transax  now. The extra cost was an increase in the rental (almost double the cost).
With the people that do not offer the service you do not know what you are missing. If people want to pay by card they will not call up somebody that does not advertise the service they will just approach people who do, you will not know the business you are missing out on.
I have had people use us specifically to use a credit card, most people will howevr ask how we would like to be paid.
I do not think that the charges that some of these people want to charge for the service does justify the small amount of extra business that you are going to get.
If you can find a service provider that is not going to fleece you then it is a service worth offering.
I am going to ask transax for proof of the notifiaction was recieved by us, then send them an invoice for the reimbursement of the extra costs paid.

Peter
www.carpetcleanercardiff.com