Launched last week the iZettle mini chip card readers enable small business owners to accept payment by debit or credit card by simply plugging the reader into an Iphone or tablet.
This is fantastic news for electricians who have long awaited a low cost, hassle free method of accepting cards as payment rather than relying on cheques or the risk of carrying large sums of cash around.
A survey carried out on electricians recently revealed that 70% were owed more than £5000 in unpaid bills or late payments. This equates to lost revenue of £283m as well as the time taken in chasing outstanding payments.
74% of electricians surveyed said they would welcome a method of accepting card payments that were low cost and hassle free to use - so what are the costs and how do you go about getting an iZettle card reader?
The iZettle card reader costs £20 and comes with a £20 voucher to use against transaction fees. The transaction fee is 2.75% for each payment taken. The great news is that there are no monthly fees, no set up fees and no minimum spends. The sign up process is also very quick too. We are excited by this gadget at Trade Skills 4U and we find it encouraging that finally someone is listening to the trade people of today and addressing their long awaited need for a gadget of this kind. Initially the iZettle is free as a voucher offered with the iZettle will pay the first £20 of transaction fees, meaning the electrician will be keeping 100% of their money to begin with. After this spend the iZettle will charge 2.75%. The big question is whether or not this fee is acceptable to most sparkies. As such we wanted to do our own poll.
We think in this day and age simply relying on a cheque to clear in 2012 is far outdated. Cheques are not accepted anywhere on the High Street these days and banks still charge to clear them in a business account plus if a cheque bounces further charges can be incurred. Accepting a card payment is both professional and fair in terms of cost and customer confidence - 82% of customers would like the option of paying their electrician by card.
iZettle is totally secure and takes seconds to process a transaction. It has been tested by 4,000 UK users over the last 6 months and there are already 75,000 iZettle users in six countries.
Trade Skills 4U looks forward to watching the iZettle develop in the UK and will be watching closely at the effect this has on the working life of an electrician. There will be no more waiting around for the cash to arrive, no remembering to pick up the cheque book......it is a fact that everyone carries their cards around with them. On many jobs, the person paying the bill isn't around very much and payment suddenly becomes an awkward issue. Payment by card takes seconds and will save the electrican a lot of time in waiting for payment and be more convenient for the customer.
Read more: http://www.tradeskills4u.co.uk/posts/izettle-card-payment-iphone#ixzz2C…