Just thought I'd let everyone know of yet another option for credit card processing via the Smart Phone. We tried Roam Pay this weekend after having issues with data connectivity for both Square and Intuit GoPayment. Roam Pay worked much better, has a lower discount rate but charges .25 per transaction. Overall, I think it will be slightly less expensive for us than either Square or Intuit and the major advantage is that if you are somewhere with spotty data connectvity (a problem we've had with our last 2 shows) you can use the store and forward option to upload your transactions later. This saves us from having to use a knuckle buster and keying in the transactions later. After using this application, compared to Square and Intuit GoPayment, I think this is going to be our best option.
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Ruth,
Currently I am using my local bank with equipment via first data. It is killing me with charges. I thought of switching to the square which I have and have used when my expensive first data machine wouldn't charge. I like only paying 2.75%(no monthly fee) rather than all the other charges (equip rental, discount charges, etc) that first data and PNC put on. What are the charges with roampay since you have to go through a processor? I have to find another solution. PNC is killing my bottom line .
RoamPay has a monthly fee of $12/month, 0.25/transaction and our discount rate is 1.26%. We decided we didn't want to keep paying the extra $5 per month for AMEX so we use Square for AMEX if we have data connectivity, otherwise we ask customers to pay with another card. So far, no one has objected, customers seem to understand that AMEX has a lot of extra fees that are hard for small businesses to swallow.
I did the math for Raom Pay, Square and Intuit GoPayments based on my last 12 months of historical credit card charges, they all came out to roughly the same amount per year, within a $30 range. Our deciding factor was the option to store and forward using RoamPay and not having to result to a knuckle buster when data connectivity is not good, which for us is about 1/3 of our shows due to locations.
Thanks for the info. So you are making a switch?
Yes we are, we're keeping Square just for the customers who want to use AMEX, with Roam Pay you would have an extra monthly fee for AMEX, and then all other credit card sales will be using Roam Pay.
Could you post the link for Roam Pay? I looked it up and First Data and I can't find anything that mentions store and forward.
sure
http://www.roamdata.com/roampay/us
That link is for Roam Pay which you can not use directly without a merchant provider. There is a link on the page that mentions providers but no listing for First Data (although their logo shows up on the Roam Pay page). Do you mean http://www.firstcardms.com/ ?
We use Total Merchant Services as our processor