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Lavender Blue
18-08-2009, 07:48 AM
Hello All,
First post on here, so hopefully someone can help!

I'm doing my first craft fair at the end of October, and wondering whether I need to get a credit card machine for it. I make pieces using silver and semi precious stones, and prices range from £15 to £100. I don't want to fork out for a permanent machine as the fairs will be ad-hoc. So does anyone know the best place to get a temporary machine, whether you think I need one, or any other ways of taking cards. It has been suggested that I could take a laptop with a link to PayPal, but would this work and would people be happy to do this?

Any suggestions would be much appreciated. It's a balance between forking out for something and covering costs vs lost sales.

Solunar Silver Studio
18-08-2009, 08:42 AM
First things first...Hi:~: Lavender Blue..and welcome to our little forum!![]

Now let me just say I have no idea what I am talking about...so this is just a 'The Way I See It' answer...We have experts on this forum for practically everything...but I must admit that I haven't noticed a Finance Guru...yet! Wait a while and one might appear in a flash of blue smoke!!

Anyway - from what I know of Paypal, I think most people will be happy to use it. It would seem that a large number of people are signed up to it anyway as you can't use ebay now without doing so...and doesn't everyone use ebay???. I think most people would also be happier not to have to type in their card details on an unknown computer - so a Paypal account means that no-one else gets to see their card details. I know you can use Paypal without being signed up to them but I don't know how that works....:confused:

I'll be interested in how this thread goes as I haven't done a show yet and I'd love to know how it all works out for you!

All the best....:)

bustagasket
18-08-2009, 09:16 AM
Welcome to the forum, dont be shy, some of us are compulsive posters (its a disease) and we are a really friendly bunch here :D

I am no expert but i havent heard of having a machine temprarily, we have one at our garage but its fixed we cant take it anywhere else, so i am afraid i am no help either. My only suggestion is to chat to you bank and explain the situation. but please do let us know if there is such a facility, as it may well be of help to others here.

AlexandraBuckle
18-08-2009, 10:19 AM
Welcome Lavender :~:

I personally don't use a credit card machine and my prices are similar to yours. But I never do any 'large' shows - else I might look into it then.

I find normally that people have cash on them at shows.

You could ask the craft fair organisers whether they are doing a card facility for those that aren't providing their own. larger shows do this sometimes.

Also I think (though I may be wrong) that you need a business account to have a card machine, and there are definately costs involved.

mizgeorge
18-08-2009, 10:39 AM
Yes, to process card payments (whether by terminal, mobile POS or paypal app on an iPhone, you need a merchant account (at the very least a Paypal merchant account) which does cost more. I think the absolute cheapest way still involves about £20 per month plus a transaction fee for everything you do. I think you need to do a lot of fairs to justify this. There are some other paypal options - you can take a laptop and hope that you have a signal, and that customers are happy to use it (in my experience, they will be OK with it if they already have an account, but not if they have to enter card details). There's also Paypal virtual terminal, but that, again, involves a merchant account.

Check with your fair organiser if there are any cashpoints nearby - that makes a big difference. It's also worth being prepared to accept cheques.

Like Alexandra, I find most people come to fairs with cash though. The death of the chequebook has made a difference to this though - it seems still quite recent that we all used to carry one all the time!

ben b
18-08-2009, 10:55 AM
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julie
18-08-2009, 11:18 AM
oh i remember the "big slidey thing and a box of carbon slips" when i started in retail £50 reward of finding a stolen card used to boost my low wage nicely, then the "MACHINE" came out and i was poor again :'(

ben b
18-08-2009, 11:27 AM
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julie
18-08-2009, 11:42 AM
never heard of anyone doing that, thought that would have been hard :confused: i'd normally be left holding the card while the customer bolted out the shop ...

kymbi
18-08-2009, 12:14 PM
I have the facility to take credit/debit cards using a mobile chip n pin terminal and like George outlined, you have to have a merchant account set up, which is in addition to a business bank account ~ there is a set-up fee for the account, but it is often waived if you belong to a trade organisation (my set up was free as I belong to NMTF). I have a monthly rental agreement for my card terminal, but some companies also rent out machines for short periods/days to enable users just to lease the for fairs etc, but I can't imagine this would be cheap and hefty deposits are probably required.

I didn't have a machine when I was doing the odd craft fair and there were few problems. I only got my card machine after I had been trading weekly at a craft market for a year and knew I was going to carry on there.

MuranoSilver
18-08-2009, 12:24 PM
I'm just in the process of changing my card provider -
HSBC are not helpful, chip and pin solutions are :Y:
nic x

Fiona
18-08-2009, 02:00 PM
I've recently been accepted as a 'provisional' member of a county arts guild - did my first show with them last week, and discovered that I can 'borrow' their chip and pin machine for a small fee (if its not being already used) and also that I can borrow their manual swipe machine for nothing... now thats what I call a very good deal :)

mizgeorge
18-08-2009, 02:27 PM
How do they go about getting the money to you Fi? Does it somehow go magically to your own merchant account or do they forward it later?

Fiona
18-08-2009, 02:30 PM
They post me a cheque :) I hope !!!!

kymbi
18-08-2009, 03:51 PM
I've recently been accepted as a 'provisional' member of a county arts guild - did my first show with them last week, and discovered that I can 'borrow' their chip and pin machine for a small fee (if its not being already used) and also that I can borrow their manual swipe machine for nothing... now thats what I call a very good deal :)

That sounds like a great arrangement :D

Ominicci
18-08-2009, 06:24 PM
I think I will eventually go down the hand held chip and pin terminal if I am going to do house parties and craft fairs - but there can still be problems with them if you are out of range (same as mobile phone technology). I think it will be more professional to say you have one rather than 'cash or cheques only', but time will tell.