microlost Posted March 14, 2013 Share Posted March 14, 2013 hi, i been looking for credit card reader for vending machines, so far i found the price is around $250 to $350 a piece then there is monthly fees and transaction fees, but i don't know how much is the monthly fees. anyone use those device? how much do they cost? how much is the monthly fees? is the monthly fee per device or per account? is it worth to buy those device? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AZVendor Posted March 14, 2013 Share Posted March 14, 2013 Hi Microlost, Credit/debit card readers can be very useful in certain locations and with certain price points. You want a high volumn location or a public location with lots of transient traffic to make the investment worthwhile. You also generally want your prices up over $1 or have a substantial percentage of your prices pretty high like with energy drinks. My customers who use card readers in situations such as these tell me they have about a 10-20% sales lift by using them. The cheapest card reader you can get is going for about $200-300 per reader from USA Technology. This is an upfront cost and then you own the reader. You open one merchant account for all your readers and then each reader has a monthly fee of $12.95, I believe. Then each transaction is charged a small % fee. This is why you want high prices so that you don't end up further eroding the profit margin on lower prices items with a transaction fee. Locations with young people will get lots of use out of a card reader. I have repaired machines in the local Apple stores and the sales in the soda and snack machines, are 90% card sales - I've seen it for myself when the card reader was out of the snack for repair for 4-5 days and I went back to put it in and there was only $10 in the machine. This machine probably does $150/wk easily. While I was working on it several kids wanted to buy something but couldn't because they had no cash- only debit cards. USA Technologies is the easiest to get started with, but there are a bunch of providers to the vending industry now. Others include Apriva and Cantalope. Validator manufacturers Coinco and Mars also have card readers available. Check out their websites and read all their sales information. USAT may even still have a Quick Start program that lets you lease the readers. Try not to use more than one provider. They all use backoffice card processors to process the batches over cell signal, but you don't want to try to mix card vendors and backoffice processing as it can get messy. One other thing to note: If you don't want to cut a seperate hole in the door for the cardreader (some machines have an extra hole already) or to have the reader screwed to the outside of the door, you can check into the Mars Electronics card reader called Easitrax. It will mount on the front of a MEI bill validator replacing the original bezel and allow cards and bills to be used with the same device. Easitrax costs about $600 per machine and they used to use the USA Technologies backoffice but may not now. Coinco has a similarly mounted reader that may be substantially cheaper than Mars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wheelermj Posted March 14, 2013 Share Posted March 14, 2013 Another important question you need to ask yourself is if you want remote monitoring also or just cashless, with remote monitoring also comes alerts and pre-kitting. I am currently using InOne Technology for my remote monitoring and cashless and have 107 machines accepting credit cards and sending remote data. The InOne devices cost around the same as the USA devices, but have different transaction fees. InOne charges a flat 5.95% per transaction and $11.99 per machine per month for remote and cashless or just $8.99 a month for just cashless. I think InOne also has a lease program where rather than buy the devices, they just charge you an extra $3-$4 a month per device. I accept cards on about 80% of my machines, cashless accounts for about 30% of my total revenue, and has helped increase my total revenue 40% over my previous years sales without cards. AZ Vendor is right as far as location, I have a location at a college dorm that did almost 600 card transactions last month and an additional $700 more in revenue than that location did in February 2012. But I also have locations that did less than 10 transactions last month, not even enough to cover the fees. You ha to do at least $50 in card sales a month to really justify a card reader on a machine. I recently looked in to USA Technology for card readers because I think they are ahead of InOne in their technology with tap and pay and Google wallet and this is the information that I received from them on leasing the devices: Minimum Commitment of 10 ePorts (your choice of G8 or Edge ePort) Monthly Fees start 60 days after devices are shipped or when you accept your first transaction, whichever comes first $13.95 per device per month for cashless & cash reporting (or DEX and cashless reporting), Verizon Wireless Service and rental deducted from vends 5.95% transaction fee if your average vend price is between $1.00 and $1.99. Your startup costs are: $30 Activation Fee per device $6.90 Shipping per device (any additional parts) TOTAL upfront cost = $369 (plus parts) You can purchase the rental devices at any time during the contract for a depreciated price. The monthly fee for that device would then drop to $9.95 per month. At the end of five years, you can purchase the devices for $1. At any time through the course of the contract, you can disconnect the devices and send them back and you will be charged two monthly fees per device and then you are done. I decided to stay with InOne because of the investment I already have with InOne and the transaction fees with USA Tech would have cost me more. USA Tech fees are as follows, $0-.99 = 5%+$.07, $1-1.99 = 5.95%, $2-2.99 = 5.1%, $3-3.99 = 4.1%, $4-4.99 = 3.5%. Almost 20% of my cashless transactions are for under $1, so by switching to USA Tech, it would have cost me almost $300 a month more in transaction costs with USA Tech even with the high ticket items having a lower transaction fee. And the alerts with inOne really pay off, I got a text Sunday night at telling me that one of my frozen machines had lost power, because of that message, I was able to get to the machine and get the power turned back on before losing any product. That trip alone saved me $300 in product that would have had to be thrown away. Sorry about the long post, but I hope this information is helpful to you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
microlost Posted March 14, 2013 Author Share Posted March 14, 2013 thank you very much for the details, i will look in to it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beejaykc aka Munch A Bunch Posted March 14, 2013 Share Posted March 14, 2013 I use USA Tech. So far so good. $9.99 per reader per month, plus a percentage. Reports are pretty cool.....I get cash and credit sales numbers. That's helpful. In fact, you even get a specific selection number for each vend. So if you've got the time (or energy) you can watch what's vending from afar. Easy to activate as well. Phone call and done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mission vending Posted March 14, 2013 Share Posted March 14, 2013 Have a number with USAT and have been happy with them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sparta_Automation Posted March 15, 2013 Share Posted March 15, 2013 I am a smaller full line vendor, but I have used USA Tech for 3+ years and think they are pretty good. The fees are not that much. Travis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Priusjames Posted March 15, 2013 Share Posted March 15, 2013 No Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
indiana Posted March 15, 2013 Share Posted March 15, 2013 No What he said. At the present time, I'm having a hard time justifying the additional monthly expense the card readers would require. I'd look into this more seriously if there was a strictly per transaction fee or a reasonable flat rate without transaction fees, but the monthly charge (I realize it's to pay for the Verizon service) plus transaction fees sounds prohibitively expensive right now. I would *love* to see reports on both cash and cashless transactions remotely and in real time. This would help me in a number of ways. I think I will wait for more service providers to create additional competition in the marketplace and drive the monthly costs down before I jump in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beejaykc aka Munch A Bunch Posted March 15, 2013 Share Posted March 15, 2013 I just uploaded a sample report from USA Tech. It's in the download section of the forum. It's called USA Tech Report Sample. To me, even being small, it's worth the $9.95 per month and 5.95% per trans to have this. It allows me to monitor sales and even selections if you drill down into the reports (I did not include that in this sample - but it is part of the report capability). I ran it for my sales at my 2 locations for today only, but you can indeed change the date range when you run the report. Hope this is helpful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Priusjames Posted March 15, 2013 Share Posted March 15, 2013 I've read that, in trendy/hipster and/or Gen Y locations, this is the only way to go...kids don't carry cash anymore, its atm and credit cards or nothing for the youngsters. But I have no personal experience Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ruff84 Posted March 15, 2013 Share Posted March 15, 2013 I don't have any card readers either, but speaking from a younger generations view (not that young at 28) i NEVER have cash on me. I know my friends are the same way, I would say it would depend on the account if you really need them, if it's a factory full of middle aged men and women i would say you probably don't need them. If it's an apartment complex or something similar full of college age kids it probably won't ruin the business not to have them but i would bet if you did have card readers the sales would go up by atleast a 1/4- 1/3. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beejaykc aka Munch A Bunch Posted March 15, 2013 Share Posted March 15, 2013 I don't have any card readers either, but speaking from a younger generations view (not that young at 28) i NEVER have cash on me. I know my friends are the same way, I would say it would depend on the account if you really need them, if it's a factory full of middle aged men and women i would say you probably don't need them. If it's an apartment complex or something similar full of college age kids it probably won't ruin the business not to have them but i would bet if you did have card readers the sales would go up by atleast a 1/4- 1/3. I have a factory full of middle aged men and NONE of them have cash. They use the cc readers. In fact, that's 90% of how I got the location in the first place. For those of you worried about the cost - don't be. Pass the cost (or at least part of it) on to your customers. You have the ability to set your price differently for cash and credit sales. You do, however, have to say that the price displayed is for credit sales and the cash price is "$X" less than that. I chose NOT to do this, therefore you pay no extra fee for using the cc reader. Technically, you're not allowed to charge more for credit card sales. So the alternative to that is to charge less for cash sales. In my eyes, that's confusing and just sets a bad precident to your customers. So I don't do it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wheelermj Posted March 15, 2013 Share Posted March 15, 2013 The prices I shared for USA Tech is for leasing rather than buying the equipment which is why the monthly transaction fee was $13.95 instead of $9.95. I was told that the transaction fees were based on the cost. For transactions under $1 the fee was 5% + $.07 per transaction. I did close to 3000 card transactions under $1 in February, so those fees would have been around $.10 per transaction rather than the $.04 I paid with InOne. Does USA just have a flat transaction fee, or does it vary by price like I was told. What types of alerts are available with USA Tech, when I chose to go with InOne 3 years ago, it was because USA Tech didn't offer any alerts or any remote monitoring. I do think USA Tech is superior in their technology with Credit card readers, I would just like to know hoe they compare with the remote side of their setup. Thanks for the information Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
indiana Posted March 15, 2013 Share Posted March 15, 2013 Can any of these validators be installed on any any snack and soda machine? I primarily use AP snackshops and I have one USI machine for snacks. I have various Dixie Narco and Royal machines for soda. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sparta_Automation Posted March 16, 2013 Share Posted March 16, 2013 As long as the machine is MDB, they will work. As far as the transaction cost, the fee for USA Tech is 5.95% OR 5 cents per transaction....whichever is greater. Travis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AZVendor Posted March 16, 2013 Share Posted March 16, 2013 Can any of these validators be installed on any any snack and soda machine? I primarily use AP snackshops and I have one USI machine for snacks. I have various Dixie Narco and Royal machines for soda. In order to connect a card reader, the machine will have to already be, or be converted to, the MDB protocol. Card readers connect to MDB for power and communication. If you have a non-MDB machine, your options are a logic board conversion, possibly a harness-only change (DIxie Narco SII board), or a MDB conversion kit that connects between the logic board and your Micromech coin mech and validator. If you want to put a card reader in a specific model, I can tell you what would need to be done to make it work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marzvending Posted March 17, 2013 Share Posted March 17, 2013 does anyone know the website to USA Tech to get these credit card reader for vending machines? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sparta_Automation Posted March 17, 2013 Share Posted March 17, 2013 Really...... http://usatech.com Click on eport hardware link Travis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wheelermj Posted March 17, 2013 Share Posted March 17, 2013 I just uploaded a sample report from USA Tech. It's in the download section of the forum. It's called USA Tech Report Sample. To me, even being small, it's worth the $9.95 per month and 5.95% per trans to have this. It allows me to monitor sales and even selections if you drill down into the reports (I did not include that in this sample - but it is part of the report capability). I ran it for my sales at my 2 locations for today only, but you can indeed change the date range when you run the report. Hope this is helpful. I would really like to see this report, but I have not been able to find it in the download section. Can you tell me how to find it. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marzvending Posted March 17, 2013 Share Posted March 17, 2013 i w Really...... http://usatech.com Click on eport hardware link Travis Hey travis is this only the credit card reader? does this mean i have to have a 2 slots 1 for the credit card reader and the 2nd for the bill acceptor??? i know MEI has a combo that has a credit card reader with the bill acceptor together...on my vending machines i don't have two separate slots for a credit card reader and for a bill acceptor? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sparta_Automation Posted March 17, 2013 Share Posted March 17, 2013 Here is a sample from my acct..... They can be mounted in the spot for a bill validator. Some machines have more then one location for additional items to be installed. If you don't have any extra slots, the reader can be mounted directly to the door itself. I have dont this on a couple of machines. Doing this, leaves a hole if you ever remove the unit....but it works. I know that MEI have validator/reader combo units, but I have never used those before. Travis USATech.pdf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marzvending Posted March 17, 2013 Share Posted March 17, 2013 Here is a sample from my acct..... They can be mounted in the spot for a bill validator. Some machines have more then one location for additional items to be installed. If you don't have any extra slots, the reader can be mounted directly to the door itself. I have dont this on a couple of machines. Doing this, leaves a hole if you ever remove the unit....but it works. I know that MEI have validator/reader combo units, but I have never used those before. Travis ((((((If you don't have any extra slots, the reader can be mounted directly to the door itself. I have dont this on a couple of machines. Doing this, leaves a hole if you ever remove the unit....but it works.))))))) Is there any way you can load up a photo what you are explaining here?? i really would like to see what you are talking about?? Thank You!! ive been getting alot of requests for credit card readers and id like to do the set up the correct way..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sparta_Automation Posted March 17, 2013 Share Posted March 17, 2013 Getting pictures would be a little difficult until tomorrow sometime, but in each kit from USATech is a paper template that will show you where to drill holes through the cabinet door so that you can put screws through the back of the door into the card reader. In addition to the 4 mounting holes that are required, you would need to drill one additional larger hole for the data cable. I have done this on both of my DN 5591's. This allowed me to mount the card reader just above the bill validator.. I will get pictures tomorrow and post. Travis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marzvending Posted March 18, 2013 Share Posted March 18, 2013 thanks cant wait to see them Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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