cashless payments and high tech

[robotjosh]

Is adding credit card payments always worth the cost for 20% increased sales? It appears that credit card capability would cost at least $280 per machine plus $13/month plus fees. A side benefit is inventory updates whenever someone pays with card.

What about NFC or other cashless payments? Is there any equipment available to do non-creditcard cashless payments?

What about tablet style iphone/android terminals like vendscreen? Has anyone paid for this equipment and made their money back?

Is there any vending tech that doesn't exist yet but operators dream of having?

Thanks,

Josh Jordan

[AZVendor]

The NFC capability is available in some of the latest card readers. USA Technologies G8 model, for example, has NFC and mobile payments capabilities already built in.

[Gamvend]

I do not have any credit card readers or any cashless payment systems but, I am seriously considering on trying it on a couple of my best accounts. I bet you could charge a 10-15 % transaction fee for credit card payments and people wouldn't even blink. Maybe I'm wrong but it seems that people especially when using credit cards wouldn't really be phased by it. That way you can cover your fees and rental and still increase sales. Can you do something like this with this technology like charge a transaction fee?

[robotjosh]

I thought with creditcards you had to pay a monthly fee per machine plus $0.18 per transaction. I don't think cc users get charged and extra $0.18, that gets taken from your profit.

[Sparta_Automation]

You are allowed to charge a higher rate for creditcards then cash now. Typically USATech charges around $9/month + .05 per transaction. The point is that your showing price is the cash price, however if paid by a creditcard, you increase the price in increments of a nickel....you just have to clearly post that credit purchases will be an additional amount.

Travis

[AngryChris]

You are allowed to charge a higher rate for creditcards then cash now. Typically USATech charges around $9/month + .05 per transaction. The point is that your showing price is the cash price, however if paid by a creditcard, you increase the price in increments of a nickel....you just have to clearly post that credit purchases will be an additional amount.

Travis

I was told that you are still NOT allowed to charge higher prices for credit-card usage. This information was given to me by a MEGA-LARGE VENDING CREDIT-CARD DISTRIBUTOR less than a week ago. You might be right, but I am just posting what I hard (I am not yelling at you, I am just don't want to directly name the company )

[Sparta_Automation]

I was in a state building the other day...and the machines had a sign that said "cost of item is .15 higher then shown for credit purchases".

I can only report what I actually saw.

[wheelermj]

You have always been able to charge more for a credit card transaction, you would just have to be careful with the way you worded it. You would have to say you have a cash discount rather than a surcharge on your credit cards. But starting January 27, 2013 charging a surcharge of up to 4% now became legal in 40 states, they are still illegal under state laws in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Oklahoma, and Texas. I think it is still a little confusing with the surcharges, you can only charge them on credit card transactions on Visa and MasterCard not on debit transactions or AMEX or Discover. Personally I don't charge more for credit card transactions, but if I did, I would advertise a cash discount rather than a cashless surcharge. With the law capping the surcharge at 4%, it doesn't even cover your fees only subsidize them slightly.