Posts filed under 'Credit Card Equipment'
We have had some renewed interest recently in wireless processing on a PC. After some research and a few experimental merchants, we found it is extremely easy to setup a laptop with some PC Processing software, a card reader, and a wireless or cellular PC card. In the end, the business can have a completely wireless credit card terminal, that has far more advanced abilities than any off the shelf wireless terminal.
Here’s what you need:
- Laptop – In this case the smaller the better, and it is important that it has a good battery life (> 3 Hours Preferably). Or get lots of extra batteries.
- PC Processing Software – I recommend PC Charge Pro for this purpose.
- PC Compatible Card Reader – A USB card reader is going to be the easiest to setup in this situation, but PS2 and Serial card readers are also available. There are also keyboards with attached card readers, if an external keyboard is something that could be feasible.
- Wireless LAN PC card or cellular PC card – The LAN card will let you process over a WiFi connection, while the cellular card allows your computer to use cellular phone networks. The cellular card would also require cellular service, but most cell phone carriers can add this to your existing cellular account.
- Merchant account – It is important to ensure that your merchant account provider can setup PC Charge for processing over the internet.
Why this system is great:
First off, PC charge is a very good program. It is in my opinion the best PC based processing program on the market. It is relatively cheap <$300, very easy to use, and it is compatible with just about every processing platform out there. A business can manually enter transactions on their computer, or they can add the card reader and swipe their customer’s cards into the program. The support is good and one year is now included with each license. The reporting with PC Charge is more advanced than with most terminal. PC Charge is also PCI / CISP compliant, so you wont need to worry about that at a later time.
Second, there are a lot of businesses that already have one or more existing laptops. It doesn’t take a super fast, top of the line computer to process credit cards. You could probably buy a sub $200 laptop on ebay and get more than satisfactory results with it.
Third, WiFi is almost everywhere. I see WiFi access points all over the place. A wireless PC card is really cheap, and some businesses can get away without ever needing a cellular setup. Note: Make sure that you process only on a WiFi connection that is secure. Do not connect to, or trust non-secure wireless connections. When you connect to them, anyone on that network has direct access to your computer.
The cellular problem:
Here is the only major concern that I find with this setup. When using a cellular PC card, you must also have a service with a cellular provider. Unfortunately, Verizon and Cingular charge a lot for using their wireless internet networks that allow your computer to connect to the internet. If you already have a cellular service, you may be able to add this service at an more-affordable price, but from what I have seen it isn’t really cheap. Both Verizon and Cingular offer wireless PC Internet services, and you will need to check with them to see what the monthly cost would be.
Getting it setup:
Assuming that you already have the laptop, the first thing to do is to get the wireless internet going on your computer. Whether you are using a WiFi card or a cellular card, you will need configure your system to connect to the internet using the method that you chose. Here’s an excellent guide on setting up a WiFi card on your computer. Setting up a cellular PC card, will be almost the same process, except there will some required software and some additional user info and passwords to enter. These will be provided by your cellular service provider.
Once you have your laptop connected to the internet, and your merchant account is setup, you will need to install the PC Charge software. This is a simple process, consisting of inserting the CD and installing the program like you would any other. PC Charge comes with one year of support, so if you run into problems, you can call to get help from PC Charge. There are also some business specific information about the processing network your business is using, so normally you will setup some of the specifics in PC charge with the assistance of your merchant account provider, or PC Charge support.
If you are planning on using a card scanner you should now attach it to your USB port. If you’re using Windows XP or better, it should automatically be detected. Otherwise go to your control panel, and use the add-remove program application. PC Charge normally will automatically use the card reader that you plug into it. If it doesn’t work, call their support and they should be able to get you going. Make sure you use a card reader that is compatible with PC Charge. There are also PS2 (Keyboard connection) versions of card readers, but I recommend the USB versions.
Finally:
Now you’re ready to go. Anywhere that you have an internet connection and enough battery to keep your computer going, you should be able to electronically process credit cards. You can get a car charger for your computer, and can add portable printers if you want to be able to print receipts. This setup may not be as compact as a wireless terminal, but it doesn’t lack anything in speed and usability.
Everyone that I have seen use this setup was extremely satisfied with it. We recently has a customer recommend it to over two hundred associates in their industry, and not one of them using it has had anything but praise for it. The setup can occasionally lead to some snags, but once everything is running properly you have a excellent processing method.
Useful References:
Card Readers Compatible with PC Charge
February 27th, 2007
I have blogged in the past about how slow the processing industry is moving towards adopting smart cards and contactless payments.
These two technologies present some major benefits and some major flaws compared to the ancient magnetic stripes that we have all come to know. For anyone not knowing what RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) contactless payments are, check out: New-wave pay plan. Smart card credit cards are credit cards with an embeded smart chip in them in addition to or in replacement of the magnetic stripe. The smart chip can securely store a lot of information compared to a traditional credit card.
Now, at some point I think that either smart cards, or RFID contactless payments are going to make a jump. If I were to bet on it, I would have to bet on contactless payments.
Here’s why contactless payments are going to be ‘the next big thing’ in payment processing!
Smart cards have been around for quite a while now. But, they have never gotten anywhere in payment processing in the US. They offer superior security compares to the current situation, so much that a person’s PIN number can be safely stored on the card itself. Smart cards have the potential to make the entire process of processing, much simpler.
However, smart cards are expensive, and they have never been that much better to justify the cost, time, and difficulty required to replace magnetic cards, to really catch on. They aren’t that much faster than normal credit cards if any, and how much information do you really want to store on your credit card?
Contactless payments on the other hand are in a position to become the standard, very quickly. Nowadays, processing cards is all about speed and convenience. I regularly see mom-and-pop businesses setting up their terminals through an Ethernet connection, because it is so much faster than dial up. Fast food restaurants are always looking for ways to speed up the ordering process. Sonic recently started using QSR self serve terminals at many of their locations. For these high output businesses where budgeting is calculated on hundredths of a penny, even a few seconds extra per person costs a lot in the long run.
Contactless payments simply have several key ingredients in every necessary sector which sets them apart from Smart Cards.
First off, contactless processing is cool.
Swiping your key chain or wallet over a terminal to pay is much more amusing than handing your card to a cashier. MasterCard curently uses a keychain tag for their contactless program. The cell phone ringtone industry is currently grossing more than 3 Billion dollars per year in the US. Believe me when I say that the coolness factor is a big part of it for consumers.
Second, it is more secure.
Since the card never leaves your hand, there is very little chance that your information can be illegally recorded. Yes it is true that someone could potentially intercept the radio signal that transmits your information from the card to the terminal, but this information is encrypted, and the equipment to do it is a little more complicated than a pen and paper. If you’re really worried about it, then you can get a RFID shield. Information on RFID payment cards is encrypted anyway, so if someone decides to scan your card while you’re walking by, the data wont be readable.
Third, they are very, very, fast.
RFID is significantly faster than swiping a card through a machine and even faster than processing a smart card. It takes only a second or two to hold the card over the reader, then green light you’re done. This will please even the most time-conscious McDonalds restaurant, and they don’t even have to reach out to grab the card.
Four, the technology is already there.
Contactless RFID systems have been used in many country’s train and other transportation systems for years. RFID is a well developed technology that will migrate perfectly into credit card processing.
Fifth, magnetic strips are old, have limited storage, are unsecure, and simply suck.
Magnetic strips were first added to credit cards in 1979 before the first IBM PC was created. Lets just say that technology has moved on a little bit, and sometimes old technologies are due to be retired. magnetic strips can only hold a few bytes of data on them, and they aren’t encrypted. Anyone with a computer and a card reader can get all of the data on the card. With a RFID or Smart Card the data can be encrypted so that it cannot be read by simply swiping it onto a computer. When you scratch your stripe it stops working. Magnetic stripes are very weak and can easily be destroyed. Even placing your wallet neat a magnet or a checkout scanner can wipe the data on your card. Stripes were great when they were invented, but it’s time to move processing into the 21st century.
Sixth, they are cheap.
With smart cards coming in at several dollars per card, the sub $1 price of RFID tags is another hugely important factor for the banks that issue the cards. Replacing millions of cards costs a lot of money, and by saving over a dollar per card, banks will be much more likely to take the initiative.
Contactless programs already being pushed:
Mastercard Paypass
Amex ExpressPay
Visa Contactless
With the increased awareness in transaction security from consumers and businesses, and an ever present belief that things need to go faster, contactless cards are in the position to become the standard. Obviously this change will take years to complete, but when compared to smart cards, contactless look to be far superior, and in a far better position to make a move.
Related Articles:
Contactless payments take hold
February 15th, 2007
Originally First Data released an initial price of the new FD-100 terminal to be around $200.
Sadly, I learned a few days ago that this was a completely incorrect initial statement. The actual price of the FD-100 is most likely going to be in the $400 – $500 price range.
To me this is quite a lot of money for a terminal that can only be used on FDMS processing platforms. Yes, the terminal does have a ton of features, but some like USB ports aren’t able to be used by the majority of peripherals. The original $200 tag was low enough that it made the terminal worth the cost despite the drawback of being proprietary. I imagine that the $500 version is going to be much more difficult to push into the marketplace, when terminals like the Omni 3750, Hypercom T4100 and a few Nurit terminals have the same features, at a lower price, and they can be used with any processor.
The original FD100 post
November 16th, 2006
I sell several thousand credit card machines through the company website each month, and one of the most common questions is regarding the warranty on a credit card machine, and how long will a terminal last. Verifone and Hypercom offer 5 Year terminal warranties (1 year on the printer) and Lipman offers a 1 year warranty on their terminals.
How long should a credit card terminal last?
A warranty for a credit card terminal will cover any manufacturer defects with the terminal. Luckily, 99% of the time any defects are found within a week or two of using a terminal, as something that is going to fail is almost always going to fail early on. Thanks to the lack of advanced electronics in most credit card terminals, they are extremely reliable and will operate for many years under normal conditions.There are many terminals in operation today that are over 20 years old. Early Tranz and Zon series terminals, which were originally manufactured in the early 80’s are still working strongly, and are probably the most reliable terminal that have ever been made.
As long as any manufacturer defects are discovered early on, the terminal itself can fairly easily last 6 years or more. The expected life on a credit card terminal from the manufacturer is normally about 100,000 hours. With less than 10,000 hours in a year, the lifespan of a terminal should be around 10 years. The main reason that terminals don’t last this long, is that they are heavily used, dropped, or abused which reduces their life. Things like spilling a soda on the terminal, or dropping it on the floor will almost always drastically reduce the life of a terminal, if it doesn’t break it completely.
Maximizing the life or your terminal:
For a short period of time, liquids or physical shock are the most damaging things to a credit card machine. Looking at a terminal over time, heat, dirt and debris will reduce the overall life of your terminal.
Keep the terminal clean and avoid spilling food and especially liquids on it. Try to keep it in an area where there is adequate airflow, and someone where it wont get bumped or dropped.
Heat kills electronic equipment, and some of the components in a terminal can get fairly warm. Over time this degrades the internal components of the terminal, and will reduce the overall lifespan of the electronics. Try not to keep the AC adapter directly next to the terminal as it is probably the hottest part of the terminal. Also, try not to put the terminal in the exhaust path of a cash register or computer as these can produce a lot of heat that gets blown directly into the terminal.
If you do spill a liquid on it, immediately unplug it and call you processor for cleaning instructions. Normally drying it out and cleaning some of the parts with a mild isopropyl alcohol and water solution will fix it, but contact you provider or you may void your warranty or break your terminal by improperly cleaning it. Also, some terminals have intrusion prevention devices that will cause your terminal to be inoperable if it is opened, so don’t actually disassemble your terminal. The bottom line is that if you spill something on it, unplug it and call your processor’s technical department.
November 2nd, 2006
The computer industry constantly pushes the idea that everyone needs the latest and greatest computer in existence, when something for 1/10th of the price would be perfectly sufficient for most people. The credit card processing industry, especially in the retail and restaurant fields, often works similarly, where business owners are frequently convinced that they need some extravagant processing system in order to accept credit cards.
If you own a business, the last thing you want to be worrying about it whether your credit card processing system is going to work. It should be pretty much a rock solid, reliable system. Despite the price, the more complex systems out there can be the least reliable.
POS and complex processing systems are very difficult to setup, and difficult to maintain. If there are problems, support is often hard to get, complicated, expensive and time consuming. I have seen a software company take over 2 months to properly setup their system with a customer of mine. This system cost over $10,000 just to setup and it was constantly breaking. When you get a POS system, any support for your equipment, goes to the POS company and not your merchant service provider.
This situation is not uncommon for many restaurants and businesses with these expensive systems. What these businesses didn’t believe was that a simple credit card machine for $300 and a cash register for $800 would have been a much more cost effective system, that would have been minutely less efficient, but much easier to use. That $9,000+ difference in price will never be made up using that expensive system.
POS and complex processing equipment has its place:
There is no doubt that POS systems have their place with some businesses. Businesses with huge inventories would be completely lost without them, as would extremely high volume, complex menu, or high speed restaurants.
For many smaller retail and restaurants, especially start-ups, it’s just overkill!
What you do need:
I know restaurants that process over $5,000,000 per month in credit cards, and they use 5 impact cash registers and 5 Hypercom T7 Plus credit card machines. While this may not quite meet the demands of your business, you should carefully weigh your options before making your decision. Do you really need to spend thousands of dollars on something that may not help you in the long run. Find a system that is able to grow as the needs of your business grow. If you do opt for a complex processing system, make sure you aren’t going to need to replace it any time soon, and that it is very well supported. Replacing a credit card machine is cheap, but replacing a POS system is not. Also, don’t forget to take into account the time it takes to train an employee on how to use your system. A credit card machine only takes about 10 minutes to learn the basics, a POS system could take 10 hours or more.
Especially in the case of a start-up business, the money spent on a complex, expensive system is almost definitely better suited elsewhere. Don’t believe a salesman that tries to convince you that you need their system just because they say you do or throw some charts at you. As long as your processing method works smoothly and securely, your customers will not know or care what you are using to process their card. Only you can determine if you need that expensive system. If you’re in doubt, opt for the cheaper method and upgrade later.
Finally: Ask yourself if you really need all of the features, and if you really can justify the cost before buying into any expensive processing or other business equipment. Is your business better off spending that $10,000 elsewhere and upgrading later?
October 25th, 2006
FDMS recently came out with their own credit card terminal called the FD-100.
The FD-100 is a small simple credit card terminal that is poised to become a major competitor on the counter top of companies processing on First Data platforms. First Data is by far the largest processor in the US, making this terminal available for a large number of businesses.
What sets the FD-100 apart from the competitors is the advanced features at a very low price (Most likely around $200). While it is lacking an internal pinpad, it has a touch screen, and comes with the ability to process over the internet (IP capable) right out of the box, with a seperate WiFi module available for WiFi wireless processing. The printer is a quick 15 lines per second thermal printer, using a standard paper size. The terminal itself supports recurring billing, has a built-in function to process corporate cards, automatically prompting for the extra required information. The terminal is compatible with gift card and check service programs, including telecheck. The terminal has tip applications for restaurants, can be setup with automatic gratuity, has a open/close tab option for bars or restaurants, and can be programmed with gratuity recommendation lines for customer receipts. The memory will store up to 450 credit transactions, and the terminal stores the previous 8 batch information for quick reference.
The FD-100 is currently supported on the FDMS Nashville platform, and will be certified on the FDMS Omaha platform in a few weeks (FDMS Platform information).
September 14th, 2006
If you know much about payment processing or have paid attention to the credit card terminals that businesses use where you shop, you would quickly realize that technology in credit cards and processing equipment has barely changed in the last 20 years.
The first Verifone Zon series terminal was introduced by Verifone in 1983. Some of those terminals, manufactured in 1983 are still being used today. Most new terminals still use the same, relatively simple technology found in the original Zon terminals.
In an age where the average person can construct a near-super computer, why have we not adopted better technology into paying for merchandise?
Much like the military, credit card processing relies on reliability and consistency. However, many of the newer technologies that we see are very reliable. The older technologies are also more expensive to manufacture because they are outdated.
With this is mind, the major hold on advancing payment technologies lies in consumers. Payment processing is a 100% consumer driven industry. Merchant account providers, ISO’s, Processing Banks, and Credit Card Companies exist because businesses want an easy way to accept payments, but more importantly and ultimately the deciding factor: consumers want an easy way to pay.
Credit cards offer that simple, cheap, fast, and convenient method of paying for something. The new technologies that exist, smart cards and contact-less payments, which are intended to make paying even quicker and simpler, are great ideas but they share one fatal flaw hindering their widespread adoption.
These technologies are derived from the needs of large corporations and not consumers. How many consumers care if McDonald’s can save thirty million dollars per month if each person they serve can pay for their food 2 seconds quicker?
None…
Eventually these technologies will be pushed on to consumers, but it is definitely going to take time. There is great expense for businesses to adopt new systems and the act replacing a billion credit cards with something that costs 10 times as much is no desirable task for any bank.
Between smart cards and contact-less payments, I would place my bet on contact-less becoming the next thing for payment processing. But, it’s still not going to happen any time soon.
Related Posts:
The history of credit card terminals.
September 13th, 2006
Here is some great news I came across in regards to WiFi processing. Verifone and D-Link are going to form an alliance to help support and push WiFi credit card processing. While it is fairly straight forward to setup a WiFi processing system, there are very few service providers that can support WiFi. Hopefully with this strategic partnership, we will see a huge advance in the availability and support of WiFi credit card terminals.
Between WiFi, Wireless, and Broadband/Ethernet/IP processing, I think that we are seeing the beginning of the end of the land-line credit card machine.
Link to the original article…
Related Posts:
WiFi Credit Card Processing
June 6th, 2006
I just found out about some very important news that is highly relevant to anyone using a Nurit 3010, a Nurit 2090 or any other wireless terminal that operates on the Motient or Mobitex networks. In a few months, all Mobitex and Motient network terminals will be unable to process on those networks. Essentially the networks are being shut down for wireless processing. Wireless terminals will only be allowed to operate on the Cingular GPRS network, and soon the Verizon CDMA network. The GPRS and CDMA networks are much more reliable with better coverage than that Motient and Mobitex networks. All Nurit 3010 and Nurit 2090 terminals will be obsolete when the switch is made. Nurit 8000 terminals that do not operate on the GPRS network will also be obsolete.
Because of this recent news, I strongly advise against buying any wireless terminal except a Nurit 8000 GPRS, or a Verifone VX terminal that processes on the GPRS and/or CDMA networks. Additionally, due to the acquisition of Lipman by Verifone, we can expect some major changes in the Lipman product line, and we may possible see Verifone dissolve Lipman into the Verifone product line completely.
June 5th, 2006
Something new I learned today was that newer Verifone Omni 3750 credit card terminals can come with a mobile version of McAfee virus scan installed on them. While I have never heard of a credit card terminal virus, nor have I personally seen a McAfee installed Omni, I think this is a really interesting feature that is showing someone is looking toward the future.
The way this particular virus scanning system works, is similar to the computer based McAfee. A local scanning utility is installed on the terminal, which automatically watched for viruses and other malicious scripts. This software on the terminal is automatically updated from a central McAfee server. Because of the nature of the software, it would only be necessary for Omni’s processing over a broadband connection. In this case, the terminal could be vulnerable to anything that exists on the internet. Again, I have never hear of a credit card terminal virus, but as advanced as the Omni 3750 is, I think that it could be possible for someone to target these terminals with a virus.
I will post any updates on Credit Card Terminal virus scanning if I come across them.
Link to Verifone’s McAfee information page
May 17th, 2006
