Which is the best card terminal for You?

According to the Bank of Estonia the majority of retail payments are made with bank cards and therefore it is of key importance to have a good POS card terminal solution for your business, be it a shop or restaurant or cafe. In addition it happens quite often that Estonian do not even have any cash with them and when you do not offer the card payment option they may leave your business without any purchase, but a quick card payment solution may raise the client satisfaction considerably.

But from where can You rent a POS card terminal and how to choose the most relevant one for Your business?

In order to start to accept card payments from Your customers You need to sign the agreement with a bank or other relevant institution and to select the suitable card terminal. Comparing banks with other financial institutions offering card payment terminals then banks usually ask somewhat smaller percentage from your sales but other institutions may offer quicker transfer of money to your account. Each company of course has to make the final decision by itself about the most relevant solution for its business.

Types of POS card terminals

One can divide the POS card terminals into three main categories:

• Mobile card terminal

A mobile card terminal suits mainly to the companies that have a stable sales point but the waiters need to move around, i.e. restaurants and cafes where you serve at the tables.

• Smart terminal

A smart terminal suits for the companies that do not need to take too many payments per day. The terminal works in a set with a smart device with internet connection and therefore the speed of the transactions can be quite slow. It suits in case you have maximum 30 card payments per day.

• Card terminals with LAN connection

A LAN connected pinpad card terminal is connected with internet cable and it can be integrated with your POS system. This solution suits best for the business with a stable sales point and many transactions per day.

Which card terminal is the most favourable?

Which POS card terminal is the most favourable depends on the type of the company, number of card payments and their sums.

The price of usage of a bank card terminal depends of two factors:

• Rental or purchase price of a terminal

We recommend you to rent the terminal and not buy as then it is easy to change the terminal when new functionalities are added (e.g. mobile payments or swipe-to-pay) and be up to date. You do not need to purchase a new terminal in the situations like that.

• Percentage to be paid monthly to a bank or other financial institution

Here you have to pay attention to the different pricing models of the service providers – in some cases the percentage is higher but the maximum amount per one payment is fixed.

To find the best solution for Your business it makes sense to get more than one comparable offers for yourself.

Why is it necessary to integrate your POS with the card terminal?

One can integrate the LAN connected card terminals with a POS system and we recommend to do it for sure. Theoretically one can also connect a bluetooth connected card terminal with a POS system but then the POS system cannot be used for other actions while one person is doing a card payment. In addition there is a big possibility that reaching a table with the card terminal the transactions has already been expired. These are the reasons we do not recommend integrating a bluetooth card terminal with a POS system.

When your card terminal is integrated with your POS system the sum is sent automatically from the POS system to the card terminal – your sales person does not need to insert manually. This makes the sales process quicker, smoother and eliminates the possible human errors.

To be sure that you can serve all clients that wish to pay and accept different payment methods (swipe, Apple Pay, etc.), then it is important that these functions are supported by all sides, your POS system, card terminal and the bank. The options that in some places they still do not accept swipe payments occurs only due to the reason that the POS system is not made ready to accept these. Apple Pay payments can be accepted in case you have made an account in Revolut, Monese or N26, or soon LHV bank in Estonia starts to accept these as well.

70% of Estonian restaurants and cafes are using CompuCash point-of-sales system and you can also rent card terminals from us.  Our POS system and card terminal are integrated and therefore they accept payments quicker that other solutions on the market.

Ask for an offer.