keitha
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2024, hopefully the year I get out of P2P
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Post by keitha on Jan 12, 2022 10:40:33 GMT
Cos if you didn't you'd cry
Been talking to a friend this morning
He was in his local Library when someone came in wanting to photocopy a document.
Asked how much it was and was told 20p per sheet
asked if he could pay by card and was told cash only
he then answered "I don't carry cash"
At this point library assistant get out a sheet of A4 paper and says "fill this in we can invoice you"
When the guy returns with the document the library assistant then photocopies the form, and the document for the "customer"
So the 20P per sheet will be invoiced.
if it takes someone 3 minutes to enter details into the System that's 50p ( @ £10 per hour ) postage cost let's call it another 50p Cost of printing invoice and envelope, cost of printing original form and photocopying it ...
then perhaps the further cost of sending a reminder if the invoice isn't paid.
When I worked in Local Government we did manage to get the second reminder with threat of court action stopped for invoices less than £1, as we had people doing this frequently we would produce a second reminder only after total debt reached £20.
But it is this sort of thing that makes many organisations very inefficent. ( IE it is costing more to collect the bill than the income from the bill )
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easynow
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Popcorn anyone?
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Post by easynow on Jan 12, 2022 11:30:48 GMT
Seems a bit daft, but the cost of processing a card payment of that value would be in excess of 30 pence too, I don't accept card payment on anything less than £20 in my business as it obliterates a good chunk of the profit from the sale, Card payment processing costs me in excess of £25k + vat per year.
One of my pet hates is seeing people pay for small value items by card, its a shame people don't realise how much it costs the business for them to do this.
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keitha
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Post by keitha on Jan 12, 2022 11:35:59 GMT
I'm in a relatively rural part of Wales and 2 local shops have recently gone "cash only"
one is a card shop ( Where I imagine the vast majority of purchases are sub £5 )
the other is a Ladies Hairdresser
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mogish
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Post by mogish on Jan 12, 2022 11:41:12 GMT
In spain a month or so, visited approx 5 bars/restaurants.... none took card.
At the last one I asked why, they said they had just reopened after lockdown.
Wonder what the average tax bill is in spain?
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mikes1531
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Post by mikes1531 on Jan 17, 2022 16:36:33 GMT
Seems a bit daft, but the cost of processing a card payment of that value would be in excess of 30 pence too... One of my pet hates is seeing people pay for small value items by card, its a shame people don't realise how much it costs the business for them to do this. It all depends on the agreement with the card payment processor. The above would have been the norm a few years ago, but new entrants have changed the game considerably.
Examples of these new companies are Sum Up and Square Up. The latter, for instance, charges a simple 1.75% processing fee. So the cost to process a payment of less than 50p would be less than 1p. Businesses that use these upstart payment processors aren't going to be the least bit bothered about taking small card payments and this is changing the way businesses and consumers think about those small payments.
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Post by wiseclerk on Jan 17, 2022 17:06:13 GMT
Due to Covid around here a major change/push was underway during the last 2 years towards card payments. When before it usually was something like 10€ or 5€ minimum for card acceptance, now there is essentially no minimum in most shops. Lots of shops that did not have card payment before (e.g. bakeries) now offer them. Though in bakeries cash payment is still mostly used.
And in local supermarket: pre-covid is was something like 3 cash to 2 card payment ratio, now it feels more like 4 card vs 1 cash payment.
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keitha
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Post by keitha on Jan 17, 2022 17:31:09 GMT
Seems a bit daft, but the cost of processing a card payment of that value would be in excess of 30 pence too... One of my pet hates is seeing people pay for small value items by card, its a shame people don't realise how much it costs the business for them to do this. It all depends on the agreement with the card payment processor. The above would have been the norm a few years ago, but new entrants have changed the game considerably.
Examples of these new companies are Sum Up and Square Up. The latter, for instance, charges a simple 1.75% processing fee. So the cost to process a payment of less than 50p would be less than 1p. Businesses that use these upstart payment processors aren't going to be the least bit bothered about taking small card payments and this is changing the way businesses and consumers think about those small payments.
but the lower end ones need either a WIFI connection or a link to Phone. Where I am Phone connections can be flaky so a landline would be needed with wifi, and Business Lines are more expensive than residential Again OK we are only talking £1 per day or so but all these bits add up.
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mikes1531
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Post by mikes1531 on Jan 17, 2022 21:17:50 GMT
but the lower end ones need either a WIFI connection or a link to Phone. Where I am Phone connections can be flaky so a landline would be needed with wifi, and Business Lines are more expensive than residential That may well be the case, but how many of those businesses don't already have a phone line? If they already have one, then there's probably no additional telephone cost incurred when accepting those small payments, so the cost of the phone line is irrelevant to the decision.
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adrianc
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Post by adrianc on Jan 18, 2022 9:24:01 GMT
Cos if you didn't you'd cry Been talking to a friend this morning He was in his local Library when someone came in wanting to photocopy a document. Asked how much it was and was told 20p per sheet asked if he could pay by card and was told cash only he then answered "I don't carry cash" At this point library assistant get out a sheet of A4 paper and says "fill this in we can invoice you" When the guy returns with the document the library assistant then photocopies the form, and the document for the "customer" So the 20P per sheet will be invoiced. if it takes someone 3 minutes to enter details into the System that's 50p ( @ £10 per hour ) postage cost let's call it another 50p Cost of printing invoice and envelope, cost of printing original form and photocopying it ... then perhaps the further cost of sending a reminder if the invoice isn't paid. Perhaps it's not actually that stupid. Let them off completely? Everybody's going to claim to have no cash. Zero income. Threaten with paperwork? Minor cost, but decourager les autres.
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Balder
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Post by Balder on Jan 18, 2022 9:28:40 GMT
Or if not paying for small amounts by cash just have a minimum charge that covers the cost of raising an invoice.
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Post by Ton ⓉⓞⓃ on Jan 19, 2022 19:45:44 GMT
Due to Covid around here a major change/push was underway during the last 2 years towards card payments. When before it usually was something like 10€ or 5€ minimum for card acceptance, now there is essentially no minimum in most shops. Lots of shops that did not have card payment before (e.g. bakeries) now offer them. Though in bakeries cash payment is still mostly used.
And in local supermarket: pre-covid is was something like 3 cash to 2 card payment ratio, now it feels more like 4 card vs 1 cash payment.
Overall, sounds similar to the UK
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Post by Deleted on Jan 20, 2022 16:00:11 GMT
I live in a town with one the oldest open airmarkets in the country (pre-black death). One side of it has had card readers for a couple of years, the other side market stall said "never, not until the government tells us too", 2 weeks ago the final stall caved in and one shop which refused to use cards finally closed after 90 years of opening blaming sudden lack of trade....
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adrianc
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Post by adrianc on Jan 20, 2022 16:05:27 GMT
I live in a town with one the oldest open airmarkets in the country (pre-black death). One side of it has had card readers for a couple of years, the other side market stall said "never, not until the government tells us too", 2 weeks ago the final stall caved in and one shop which refused to use cards finally closed after 90 years of opening blaming sudden lack of trade.... A few years ago, the butcher in one of my local (with a capital L) towns finally caved in and got a card reader. The last bank in town had closed, leaving just a cash machine on the co-op's wall and the post office. Within months, he was wondering why he'd not done it before - his takings had increased by quite a margin...
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