millimole wrote: ↑8 Oct 2021, 7:22am
Nationwide appears to be the only bank that still requires the use of a card reader. ......
We have accounts with other banks which still use card readers.
Over at Nationwide, I'm quite happy about the card reader for access to the account to make significant changes (such as entering a new payee). I can access the account and make payments to existing payees without the card reader.
Whether that's worthwhile if you're only going to use it on this one day is another question, but if you're going to regularly or even semi-regularly sell at cyclejumbles it probably is. I'll also say that I have no idea how complicated it might be to set it up or what charges your bank might levy.
Yes, I have a SquareUp contactless card reader. It cost £22.50 for the reader but they take 1.75% commission on any payments that you take. It’s easily portable, not much bigger than a matchbox and once charged will take payments all day long, without needing access to electricity. You link it to your Smartphone using the App, and you can then take payments for any amount you like. You get immediate confirmation that the payment has been accepted. You can use contactless up to £45 and card and pin for amounts above this.
The payments are transferred overnight and appear in your nominated account the next day. I use it to take entry fees for our club time trials and also to allow people to pay their club subscriptions. On a £5 entry fee they take 9p in commission and on a £15 subscription, they take 27p. Though if you sold a bike for £1000, you’d pay £17.50 in commission.
I barely use cash anymore, so this suits me fine. I don’t have to go to a bank to pay the cash in and I can transfer the funds to my club’s bank account electronically on my phone.
I have recently bought 3 bikes and sold 2. I paid cash for the bikes I bought - £175, £325 and £300, but I was happy to accept a bank transfer when I sold 2 Bromptons for £800 each. The money appeared in my account straight away.
My bank has done away with card readers. I can logon to my bank’s app on my phone using my thumbprint. Easy once set up and much less faff than using a card reader or having to remember passwords.
