We miss out on so many payments at events as people don’t have enough cash on them. The amount of times, at our Christmas fair I underestimated how much cash I needed to get out and wanted to buy that one last thing but couldn’t, or ‘sorry, the BBQ would have been nice, but I forgot to get cash out, we will eat at home’. As a rural school, once the local post office is closed, it’s a half hour round trip to the nearest cash machine. I’m sure its personally saved me a fortune over the years, but hasn’t helped with our fundraising. So now is the time we join the 21st century and purchase our very first card reader.
The most important factor for us is cost. As such a small school, every penny counts, so fees will play a huge factor in what card reader we go for. We also need something that is small and lightweight as a lot of our events are on the green or at the village hall. So here I am looking at the 3 top card readers with no monthly fees; Sum up, Zettle and Square reader.
Sum up Air – £17.99 one off payment – 1.69% per transaction
- Makes up to 500 transaction on one charge
- Allows chip and pin, contactless and mobile devices
- Free App
- no monthly fees or contract
- deposits money within 1-3 business days
- Simple and fast to purchase and set up
Reviews on Trust pilot are 3.7. Very mixed reviews, complaints appear to be about customer services, the opportunities for scammers to purchase a card reader and having to get verified once they had taken £5,000 in sales
Square Reader – £19.20 one off payment – 1.75% per transaction
- Allows chip and pin, contactless and mobile devices
- no monthly fees or contract
- deposits money the next working day
- Free App
- Simple to use and to set up
Reviews on Trust pilot are 4.2, overall rated excellent by customers but there appears to be a few complaints about accounts being closed for no reason.
Zettle Reader 2 – £29 one off payment – 1.75% per transaction
- accepts all major credit cards and contactless
- no monthly fees or contract
- deposits money within 1-2 business days
- 30% longer battery life than other readers
- simple to set up and use
Reviews on Trust pilot are 3.5, 60% of 2,963 reviews rated them excellent but customer service seems to be a reoccurring issue.
We decided to go with Sum up due to the price difference and this offers everything that we need.
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The Reluctant Chair 