There’s a minefield of options when it comes to picking the right chip and pin card payment solution for your business, and there’s a good chance you’ve picked one with a fantastic low monthly rental cost. Better still, you might have signed up to a contract with no monthly rental costs whatsoever. But is this the whole story?

What many business owners don’t tend to realise is that although it seems like they’re getting a great deal on their chip and pin terminals, they are paying higher interest payments for every transaction.

Typical “free” or low monthly rental chip and pin terminal tend to have charges of around 1.7% for each debit or credit card transactions. Compare this to debit and credit card rates as low as and lower than 0.35% and 0.65% respectively with GS Systems, this could mean a significant difference to your bottom line!

Let’s imagine that you process around £7,000 in debit card and £3,000 in credit card payments per week. Based on industry standard rates you could be paying over £170 per week in transaction fees. That equates to over £8,840 total cost per year in fees.

Now look at the costs of the same transactions £7000 in debit card and £3000 in credit card payments per week the total would be £44 per week or £2288 per year a substantial reduction in costs that could be added to your bottom line.

Ensure you’re not paying interest charges when you really don’t need to be and question your interest rates before you sign up for your terminals

One of our clients saved £1,700 a month on transaction fees and merchant services which paid for their system in just 3 weeks!

Example transaction fee comparison:

Other providers	GS Systems (based on 2 wired PDQs at £22.75 each per month)
Rental per week: £0	Rental equivalent per week: £10.27
Debit card charges @ 1.7% = £119/week	Debit card charges @ 0.35% = £24.50/week
Credit card charges @ 1.7% = £51/week	Credit card charges @ 0.65% = £19.50/week
Total: £170/week or £8,840 per year	Total: £44/week or £2,288 per year
Total saving with GS Systems – £6,552 per year

In the past few years, it has been clear to see that cash payments are falling by around about 15% every year. Debit card transactions overtook cash payments in 2017 for the first time, according to figures from the UK Payment Markets report.

Statistics from our own customers show that the ratio of card to cash payments is roughly 60:40.

There’s no denying that cash is slowly being overtaken by card and contactless payments. By implementing a payment solution with low merchant fees, you can make sure that your business is even more profitable.

The benefits of an integrated chip & pin machine

Faster Payments

The speed of service has dramatically changed over the years since the introduction of contactless payments with some businesses opting to go completely cashless. Contactless payments are the most efficient way of saving time in your business and reducing customer waiting times as payments are typically processed in under 2 seconds.

Bongo’s Bingo, a popular, high capacity nightclub/bingo experience, has adopted the ability to take cashless payments in order to increase their customer experience and in turn their revenue. The event itself lasts for just a few short hours, so it was critical for them to maximise the sales in that time. You can read more about how Bongo’s Bingo are utilising cashless payments to their full potential here [LINK]

Whether taking contactless or the standard card payments, the speed of service can be improved by using fully integrated chip and pin terminals. Not only can this significantly increase your turnover but its also good for security.

Reduce Errors

Mathematical or human errors are reduced significantly. With all payments running from the terminal to the EPoS system and vice versa, you can wave goodbye to short-changing your customers or even over changing.

With information being sent to and updated in the EPoS system after every sale, errors are more likely to be flagged up instantly. Spontaneous checks on your cash against stock should help to resolve these issues.

Saves time cashing up

With more people opting for card or cashless payments, the amount of cash available in the till is minimal meaning less time spent after work cashing up.

A fully integrated EPoS system linking all of your card terminals will do all of this for you. Every payment made is tracked and updated against your cash and stock reports, allowing you to check at any point of the day/night, rather than waiting until the end of the shift and hanging back for hours!

More Secure

Not only does it save time cashing up, chip and pin terminals also enhance security as less cash is stored in the till meaning fewer instances of theft. Payments are made directly from the customer’s bank to your own through the terminal.

The chip itself within credit or debit cards cannot be duplicated by thieves and also keeps customer data encrypted. The terminals send encrypted data to your business merchant account for authorisation when a customer enters their secure 4-digit pin number.

Portable Card Machines

Chip and pin ultimately serve a purpose to improve the customer experience in your establishment. Whether it’s through customer preference, customer security, ease of ordering or speed of service, the goal is the same. To spend less time waiting in line to pay for your goods.

Wireless chip and pin terminals are widely used in the hospitality to save the customer the job of standing and waiting in line to pay for their food or drinks. They are able to pay when they are ready, without leaving their table.

These terminals are fully integrated into your EPoS system, meaning you don’t have to re-enter the data a second time. Once the customer has paid, that’s the end of it! The data is then sent via wireless through to your EPoS system, providing you up to date analytics.

When you don’t pay a thing on your monthly terminals but are tied into a fixed rate of around 1.7%, those numbers add up. GS offers low, monthly payments on all of our terminals with preferential merchant rates, meaning you can undercut transaction fees by up to 35%.

Along with this, when you rent your chip and pin terminals from GS, there a no long-term contracts. You are able to choose and switch your merchant every 6 months, ensuring you are getting the best rates available to you.

To find out more about how GS Systems can help you implement a cost-effective solution with a fast Return on Investment, give us a call on 0161 483 5595.