Over the last decade interest in PDQ Machines has risen rapidly, since these streamlined devices began to appear in retail outlets more and more people became accustom with them and they began to appear in many other types of business.

Before the PDQ machine was in widespread use credit card payment was processed in a few ways, cash registers were designed with the ability of swiping a customers card, reading the data stored on the magnetic strip and then transmitting the credit card information. Nowadays most businesses have a PDQ Machine but a small few still own a cash register which might be linked up to a PDQ terminal.

Every PDQ terminal has fees involved with each transaction but the investment can be compared against the return you will see from the increase in customers who prefer to pay by card. Convenience is the name of the game and cashless transactions are becoming more frequent as consumers enjoy paying for services in situations where they might not have had chance to visit the ATM. For example, that emergency call out to the plumber who happened to carry a mobile credit card terminal with him such as the one pictured above.

Seymour Direct is committed to helping businesses achieve this convenience for their customers whilst also getting the best package to suit their own needs, since we can provide the latest mobile terminals with very low rates on rental and transaction fees.

The PDQ machine offers great ease of payment whether you are on the move with a mobile card terminal or even if you have a static desktop card machine plugged into the landline at your premises. At Seymour Direct with have a long history of helping our clients choose the payment solution that is best for them, our friendly support team will advise you on whether your business would be best suited to using a wireless or Bluetooth terminal.

You can speak to one of our staff via our Freephone 0800 980 4007 from a landline or call 01923 773 355 from a mobile. 

When requesting a quote to accept card payments we will take into account the type of business you operate and the value of the products or services that you supply to your customers, this is necessary in order to estimate the potential risk factor that is involved in the unlikely event that you may be targeted by fraudulent transactions.

Many types of business would like to accept card payments from people who purchase products from them or use their service, a merchant account in the UK can be tailored to suit any type of business if you contact a provider such as Seymour Direct.

A number of UK banks called ‘Acquirers’ or ‘Acquiring Banks’ can set up a merchant account for you but contacting them directly is far from the cheapest option, it can also be difficult to get approved with some of them if your risk assessment is estimated as high.

This is where a merchant account provider such as Seymour Direct comes in useful, we will handle the application process on your behalf and you will benefit from our experience and reputation with acquiring banks, and point you into the right direction.  Seymour Direct have been in the payments industry for over 20 years and you can use their long established expertise to obtain extremely low transaction charges and the use of a PCI compliant machines. Just simply send us the relevant documentation and we will do the rest!

As explained in previous blog posts we have written, a merchant account allows a retailer to accept card payments via a machine or e-commerce web site and have the funds deposited into one nominated bank account. This relieves the security worries of having too much cash on the premises.

You can also be assured of security when you obtain a merchant account because a card transaction  needs to be authorized by a bank before the transaction is approved. This is achieved via the Chip and Pin Terminal ( sometimes referred to as PDQ Machine )  which checks the information of a particular card holder on the electronic chip of the card when inserted into the Chip and PIN card reader. It also matches against a pin-code typed in by the person.

As you can see in the diagram above, a call is made to the acquiring bank by the Chip and Pin Terminal, who then check the details with the card network to ensure it is the genuine card holder and this information is relayed back to the Chip and Pin Terminal informing the merchant whether the transaction has been approved or not.

Since many different types of business can utilize a merchant account to accept payments, the right card machine must also be decided upon because there are many different types such as Desktop for onsite transactions, Wireless Machines which rely on Bluetooth connectivity close to your premises or you could even have Fully Mobile Devices if your business involves being on the move away from your base.

With Seymour Direct you can choose to hire any of the above types of credit card terminals and are supplied on various terms with guaranteed fixed pricing. Contact us now and we will advise what low cost plans are available to suit your business needs.

If you want to hire a mobile terminal you will need a merchant processing account, if you don’t already have one of these Seymour Direct can get you set up with one of their acquiring banks. This account is required in order for credit and debit card payments to be accepted and transferred into your assigned business account.

You could save money on merchant service charges but you would need to provide certain information about your business that would be passed on to the acquirer. You should supply Seymour Direct with the average cost of your products or services so they can look at your annual turnover, the acquiring bank would also want to know your business account information, the type of business and any guarantees/warranties offered to customers.

If you decide on mobile PDQ terminal hire then you can expect it to come ‘ready to use’, this means you get sim card hire, full customer service and warranty, you can also be assured that you will only be sent one invoice for merchant processing fees and airtime.

Seymour Direct handle both the setting up of your merchant account and the supplying of your portable credit card terminal, many other providers in the payment processing industry use a third party to supply the terminals but Seymour Direct are on hand if you have any queries or problems operating your device.

One of the great things about applying for mobile credit card terminals with a merchant processing provider like this is that you will see a fast turn around for your business, you will not be wasting time phoning around different service providers regarding the airtime or fees on your terminals since it is handled by one company.

With Seymour Direct you can choose between a variety of mobile networks since all of the Ingenico mobile terminals provided use GSM/GPRS, this means you can use the network provider that you have had good experience with in the past.  The terminals all have the highest degree of security in line with PCI compliance and can ensure you quick bank authorization on transactions, if there are any other questions or requirements you might have then don’t hesitate to fill out the simple contact form onsite.

There are several types of portable machines that enable you to accept credit or debit cards on the move. In this blog I will concentrate on the two most commonly used which are Bluetooth and Mobile GPRS versions. The Bluetooth Portable card machines, sometimes referred to as a Wireless Credit Card Machine, is very often used by restaurants who want to take the card payment at the table ensuring that the diner is in full control of their card and does not end up in the wrong hands. During recent years Bluetooth portable machines are also being used by other types of businesses such as hair salons, builders merchants, garden centres etc who want to provide a better shopping experience plus be able to close a sale quickly, such within a large garden centre, before customers talk themselves out of the purchase.

Electronic payment methods are now standard at almost every small business or retail store that wants to capitalize on credit card processing, this is due to the fact that 64% of the UK adult population own a card shown in the official report here.

As with any new technology, Chip and PIN is a challenge to get used to at first and you will have to calculate your budget to allow for card transaction fees but it will help your business compete with rivals and it will open you up to a whole new revenue stream.

Whether you want to accept payments face-to-face in a store environment or if it is an eCommerce shop, you must pay a small percentage towards the ‘payment processor’ or ‘payment service provider’ for verifying the card holders details with the card issuer and notifying the merchant bank that the funds will be deposited in your account.

The first step to taking payments from customers by card is to apply for a merchant account through a provider such as Seymour Direct, they are particularly helpful towards business owners who might not be very familiar with how merchant services are handled. After you have been assessed for risk factors and your documentation has been sent off and approved by the acquiring bank, you will be sent a PDQ machine that reads customers credit cards.

As this blog post is intended to explain, there are many ways to accept card payments and this also includes telephone and online payment methods. They work in a similar manner to face-to-face payments in the fact that you require a merchant account and the usual payment processing checks are carried out, however, they are also known as ‘Card Not Present’ transactions and because of this are considered higher risk.

Seymour Direct will provide you with a virtual terminal for processing a customers card details whilst you speak with them on the phone, all you need is an internet connection and no website is required because they send you a specific address where the interface can be accessed.

It is also interesting to note that online business now accounts for a huge percentage of a card transactions, in fact over 70% of the UK adult population has purchased goods online according statistics in 2010. Before you can accept a large amount card payments online you will need an internet merchant account, Seymour Direct can get you approved and set up since we are official business partners with Sagepay.

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Credit Card Purchases:

As a small business if you do not accept cards from your customers you are probably loosing valuable sales from customers who prefer to use credit cards instead of cash or cheques because they know their rights under Section 75 should something go wrong with the purchase

What is Section 75?

One of the most important points we try to emphasize over and over to our customers is the fact that more and more people now expect to pay for products and services with a credit card.  How often have you been to a store and although you only want to buy something cheap, you still reach for your wallet and pull out a credit or debit card because its more convenient than drawing out cash to pay.

You might be hesitant about whether to accept cards at your small business, even though you’ve heard there are many flexible packages and options regarding PDQ machine equipment. To make you aware in more detail the advantages of accepting card payments, here are some bullet points:

• You will increase sales because customers have more options of payment type, even if they wanted to pay with cash they might not have enough on them but they will always have a card in their wallet.

• With the introduction of Chip and PIN machines in the UK, Merchants are guaranteed payment when a customer purchases an item since they cannot claim that some else used their card because they are the only one with the pincode.

• When you set up your payment processing through a merchant services provider such as Seymour Direct, you will know exactly how much each transaction will cost and you can then work out your return on investment.

• It has been proven over the years that people using a credit card spend more while shopping than using cash or a cheque.

The statistics show that nearly *94% of adults in the UK hold either a credit or debit card and 66% of all payments occur via credit and debit card, this means that you are competing with your rivals who accept cards.

You could drastically cut down on costs and time spent transporting large amounts of cash via secure measures and trips to the bank, these savings can be re-invested into other areas of your business.

Merchant Services is an expanding field within the financial sector because providers such as Seymour Direct can give you the advice and resources to expand your sales reach with card payments.  We have been in this industry for over a decade and have seen how rapidly technology is progressing, this is why we are able to advise merchant’s on merchant account’s, eCommerce websites and virtual terminals.

If you are considering setting up any of the above payment systems, why not chat to one of our trained advisors via our live chat facility or phone our 24 hour freephone helpline 0800 908 4007 we look forward to hearing from you.

*Nilson Report 2010.

Various business types need different payment processing solutions, for example, if you are a retail merchant that sells business to business(B2B) then you will need merchant card services which are fast, reliable and offer extensive PCI security testing.

Aside from our state-of-the-art PDQ machine technology which can be reviewed in full by downloading the following PDF’s(Countertop,Bluetooth,Mobile), Seymour Direct’s goal is to offer services to business owners which transcends their expectations formed from current or previous merchant services they have experienced.

Hospitality industries such as restaurants or guesthouses usually have special rates because the transactions are carried out face to face but Seymour Direct accesses every business we receive applications from to surpass the rates they would expect for card payments.

You may be searching for what is known as a MOTO merchant account, which refers to Mail Order/Telephone Order payment processing. Card transactions which are keyed in by yourself via a virtual terminal such as the ones we described in the last blog post are different to when a payment is made face to face. If this is where the majority of your orders come from then you will not be able to verify the card holders chip card or pin-code and this could increase risk, however, Seymour Direct work with payment service providers like Sagepay to offer you the most secure and affordable virtual terminals.

Remember, if you want to accept payments for an online store or for telephone and mail orders through a virtual terminal, you will have to set up different merchant accounts to the one which handles your stores payments because like already stated these transactions occur under different circumstances.

Our regular merchant account application form sets up Visa and Mastercard, American Express, Maestro and JCB, which means you can accept credit and debit card payment.  If you aren’t taking debit card payments from your customers, you should think again since you may be able to arrange fixed fees per transaction with the acquirer.

In today’s merchant services world there are so many options available to suit different needs. Seymour Direct has provided solutions for businesses ranging from chauffeurs to chain brand hair salons, see our testimonials and enquire to find out what system we advise for payment at your business.

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