So I'm noticing a huge variety of new ways to take credit cards, particularly at remote locations like a boarding area or onboard the train itself. That includes:

- Dedicated credit card terminals with receipt printers that use the cellular data networks

- Gadgets that clip onto an iPhone or Android and use the phone's data service, the screen to set rates and take a signature. These are apparently astoundingly cheap.

I was wondering if anyone has tried using these and what they thought of them.

Rivers of Steel used the ipad attachment for handling all of our gift shop transactions at Carrie Furnaces NHL. It works great and I haven't heard anyone complaining about it. Its ideal for us as we do not have electricity or phone lines at the plant yet.

For our on line store we use a traditional credit card service. For mobile situations - shows, train trips, etc. we use Square on an iPad. We like Square a lot as it is easy to use, quick to process, and will generate a text or email receipt. Having a mobile ability to take credit cards is a revenue booster.

Regarding "clip to your phone" type machines, my research is showing: The "Square" product is by far the market leader and has been out for 2 years + with a fairly mature product. VeriFone just announced a competitor called "Sail". They think their market dominance in traditional credit card swipers will lead to dominance here. Maybe. PayPal has yet to ship "PayPal Here" which works similarly, but also takes PayPal and also paper checks (shoot a photo of the check). There are a few other similar products I can't speak to. EDIT: Here's another that keeps showing me Google ads: http://payanywhere.com/

With all these products, they give you the scanner for free. They don't jerk you around with weird charges, notably, because these people are trying to enroll skeptical citizens who want to keep it simple. There appear to be no minimums. Their only charge is a percentage of sales: 2.7% for a "card present" swipe/sign, and 3.7% for a "card not present" telephone order. With some of them (e.g. Verifone Sail), this drops another 0.7% if you turn on a $10/month plan.

There are only 3 things that looked scary: 1. They say they may suspend service if they see unusual patterns of activity, i.e. your Big Event. 2. They reserve the right to yank money out of your bank account if needed to cover reserves, chargebacks etc. If a museum is running close to the margins, they could find their bank account overdrawn. 3. They can delay payment for quite awhile if they suspect a pattern of fraud, however that is unlikely with our numerous small transactions.

I'm trying to figure out how to set it up in a remote location (albeit one with some power) with the least possible theft risk to staff. Seems to me the options are -- (and all costs here are MONTH TO MONTH - no contract, so you can use it only the months you really need it, and you can scale your number of terminals to your customers.)

Blackberry: Appears to only be supported by PayAnywhere, and only certain devices.

Android: Verifone does not support it. PayPal says they will, but it's easy to claim that on a product that has not shipped. Square's supported-device list is a minefield and specifically excludes tablets, which is a shame since Android tablets are cheaper and smaller than iPads. PayAnywhere supports a limited list and I don't know the Android product line well enough to know what any of that means. As near as I can figure, all Android supported devices are PHONES. None of the cellular carriers will sell you "Data-only" service for your PHONE, they will force you to also buy voice service, which starts at $40/month for most carriers.

The other problem with Android is that the vendors of these payment solutions absolutely forbid any kind of "jailbreaking" or customization of the phone's OS, which defeats the best part of Android.

Windows Phone: Not supported by anyone.

Apple: The favorite of vendors, because of its popularity and because Apple guarantees compatibility, e.g. the iPhone app will work on the iPod touch without worrying about it.) It is also very simple by design, which annoys power users but delights the amateur/volunteers we would have use these as credit card terminals. The serious downsides to Apple are 1) they are far more "theft candy" so your staff needs to guard them with your life. 2) they do not have changeable batteries so you have to charge the whole device, which means you have to guard the whole device while charging. The iPad and iPod Touch certainly have the range to make it through a day. The phone, depends on use and age.

Option 1: Refurb iPad w/ cellular
PER TERMINAL: Refurb iPad w/cellular ($500 used) + service ($30/month no contract)
Cost for 4 stations: $2000 + $120 per month used
This would allow you to use some fancy cash-register software that comes with Square, also easier for people to type on if they want to give your email etc.
Android TABLET: Square claims they do not support it.

Option 2a: used HTC EVO 4D, no contract (I don't know Android phones but this is on everyone's supported list.)
PER TERMINAL: $150 used + $80/month by month service.
Cost for 4 stations: $600 + $320 per month used

Option 2b: brand new Droid, $99, 2 year contract mandatory
PER TERMINAL: New Droid phone, $99 + $80/month service contract for 2 years, total $2020
Cost for 4 stations: $8080 for 2 years, then $80/month thereafter

Option 3a: Used iPhone, no contract
PER TERMINAL: iPhone 3GS ($150 used) + $80/month by month service
Cost for 4 stations: $600 + $320 per month needed

Option 3b: New iPhone 4, 2 year contract mandatory
PER TERMINAL: iPhone 4, $99 + $80/month service contract for 2 years, total $2020
Cost for 4 stations: $8080 for 2 years, then $80/month thereafter

Option 4: iPod Touch + MiFi routers
PER TERMINAL: iPod Touch ($100 used)
PER SITE: MiFi router ($150 new) + plan ($50/month)
Cost for 1 station: $250 + $50/month
Cost for 4 stations: $550 + $50/month
4 stations + 2 MiFi: $700 + $100/month
iPod's only work near the MiFi, not onboard the train. MiFi batteries only sized for 4 hours running. I propose 2 MiFi routers from 2 carriers for redundancy and coverage. In this scenario, you could also use a phone or iPad without service plans activated; they would get their data connection via your MiFi. So if you wanted an Android solution without being beat up on service plans, this is one way to do it, and of course you could always add the service plan later if needed.)

SUMMARY FOR 4 DEVICES:
Refurb iPad: $2000 + $120 per month needed
Used phone: $600 + $320 per month needed
New phone: $8080 for 2 years
iTouch+MiFi: $550 + $50 per month needed -- but each extra device is only $100 more

EDIT: Due to a complaint I added a lot of information about makes besides Apple. Though, let me add something to that. I just came back from a Joss Whedon movie. Just played a new Blizzard game. Just reviewed how Fred Krock entertains. Used quality tools. What distinguishes these things from other similar things is refinement. Attention to detail, smoothness of design, every annoyance and defect hammered flat, to create a product that is so smooth you don't even notice, because the usual annoyances just are gone. This is hard to do. Everyone demands compromise for the sake of their needs. It's a battleground for the usability of the product. Apple is very forceful about keeping its iOS devices simple and refined. That's one approach. The other approach is to allow anyone to do anything on the device - Android goes more that way. I leave it to you to decide which is better "in general".

But what is best "in general" is not necessarily best "in specific". What we're trying to do >HERE< is come up with a product that any volunteer can easily use, including a technology-resistant one, so we can get more customers. We don't want a power-user device whose idiosyncracies require a lot of tech-support and handholding. That's the bottom line, not embracing some high-minded geek ideal about open systems (which I normally agree with 110%.)

EDIT: A lot of people only know one way to buy a phone: walk into a cell phone dealer and walk out with a shiny new phone in shrinkwrap... and a 2-year service contract. Because of that, they think I am wildly understating actual costs of service. That is not true. To clear that up, I have added 2 more options, in which you do exactly that. It is prohibitive when the total contract costs are factored in, remember under a contract you must provision the phone service through the dead of winter. Note that the pre-existing options presume you already obtained a device from a member, Craigslist or eBay, and own it free and clear; if so, any cell provider will give month by month (or prepaid) service if you ask. I also revised my assumptions of service cost to figure $80/month.

Mifi devices I've used are charged using a mini-USB connector and will run while charging, so you can run them off AC (using something like a Kindle or Blackberry charger), a larger battery pack, or a laptop. You might even find a 12-volt automobile adapter. A lot of options here.

Bob

I agree 100% with Square. If you have a cell phone or 3G signal you are in business. We use PayPal for pre-sales on Wilmington Chapter streetcar trips, but Square for walk-ups and any day-of-trip transactions. I also use Square for all my train show transactions.

We went on vacation recently and somebody used the Square to check us out. I almost asked to pay cash instead. I'm all for technology but I have no idea on if or how that Square is PCI compliant. It'd be way to easy to write software to intercept your credit card data and store it on the device for my own devious purposes.

Square is most definitely PCI compliant, despite competitors claims to the contrary:
https://squareup.com/security/levels

If it is just for taking credit cards then get a cheap COBY Kyros Internet Tablet MID7012 4 GB they go for $82. Does what you need it to do and has expandable memory unlike iOS devices.

A quote from the Square folks:

Not a Railroad business, but at my Coffee Shop, we have been using an IPad and Square for a little over a month. We use it also to run the receipt printer and cash register drawer, as well as for a Point of Sale system.

It works pretty well, but Square could use a few more features, or at maybe we just don't know how to use all of them. For example, I'm not able to compute discounts for customers - we have to compute these by hand and enter into Square as 'Custom amounts'. I would also like to track my regular customers in the system.

Eric

I've seen the ads for Square and although there are those that think 2.75% of the sale is high, what do you get if the buyer doesn't have cash? A lost customer. So waht's better? 100% of nothing or 97.25% of a sale? I have been fighting this battle for years to no avail. There are those that would rather lose a sale than fork over any precentage to the CC cos.

Later!
Mr. Ed

Their software is PCI-DDS but is their device PCI-SRED?

Do any of the credit card services mentioned above charge a Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS) compliance fee on top of everything else? Here, we still have a hard-wired credit card terminal in the gift shop, and our provider hits us for $185/year for PCI. And that's after filling out an annual survey saying we're compliant; I'd hate to know what they charge if we weren't compliant. When I called to fuss about the PCI fee when it first appeared, they claim all merchants regardless of bank or provider must charged this fee in some way or another; it wasn't just them.

Oh, I see PCI with regards to Square was mentioned above (sorry--I didn't scroll my page all the way to the bottom to see it first).