Here we go - PCI and your terminal

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Copperhead

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Just got an email from my merchant processor service, which says that our terminal, the Hypercom T7plus, is ineligible for compliance updates or other enhancements. Then goes on to try to get me to upgrade. "without compliance updates, our POS help dest ability to support you on terminal-related issues is limited.
Now there is no mention of being uncompliant or any fees that I will be charged for not having an updated terminal but I sniff a change in the air coming.
 
"Terminal related issues".....I have the same terminal as you and I don't know about anyone else, but I've never had a terminal related issue. You're probably right though, something's brewing in the wind.
I just did my PCI compliance and the Hypercom T7 had no problems. We'll see what happens next year.
 
Just a reminder... terminals will all need to be upgrade for EMV (Chip & PIN) in the future, before you go out to buy a new terminal ask about that. It will also end the problems of PCI compliance, but that's another issue.
 
"Terminal related issues".....I have the same terminal as you and I don't know about anyone else, but I've never had a terminal related issue. You're probably right though, something's brewing in the wind.
I just did my PCI compliance and the Hypercom T7 had no problems. We'll see what happens next year..
Breakfast Diva said:
"Terminal related issues".....I have the same terminal as you and I don't know about anyone else, but I've never had a terminal related issue. You're probably right though, something's brewing in the wind.
I just did my PCI compliance and the Hypercom T7 had no problems. We'll see what happens next year.
Same here with my PCI compliance, they asked what my terminal was etc. and there were no issues.
This letter also mentions the "New EMV standards" that allow the security chip cards. It is at that point I will go with the system intergrated with my online booking and be done with purchasing new equipement.
 
I did not get that - YET. If that happens, I may just have to consider getting an iPhone or such expensive toy and look into Square. An innkeeper called me about it today - he is going with it and is going to use an iTouch I think he said it is. He is supposed to tell me how he likes it after using it a while. it is a flat rate and a receipt is e-mailed to the guest. (Hmmm -that part may be a problem for those serial guests - you know, the one with a different partner each visit....)
 
Just a reminder... terminals will all need to be upgrade for EMV (Chip & PIN) in the future, before you go out to buy a new terminal ask about that. It will also end the problems of PCI compliance, but that's another issue..
Eric Arthur Blair said:
Just a reminder... terminals will all need to be upgrade for EMV (Chip & PIN) in the future, before you go out to buy a new terminal ask about that. It will also end the problems of PCI compliance, but that's another issue.
I still don't understand how chip & pin ends anything. 50% of my transactions are keyed in. Chip & pin does nothing in those cases. Maybe card production fraud.
 
We are attempting to sell our Hypercom T7 unit. Since we went to Authorize.net, I never use it.
 
Just a reminder... terminals will all need to be upgrade for EMV (Chip & PIN) in the future, before you go out to buy a new terminal ask about that. It will also end the problems of PCI compliance, but that's another issue..
Eric Arthur Blair said:
Just a reminder... terminals will all need to be upgrade for EMV (Chip & PIN) in the future, before you go out to buy a new terminal ask about that. It will also end the problems of PCI compliance, but that's another issue.
I still don't understand how chip & pin ends anything. 50% of my transactions are keyed in. Chip & pin does nothing in those cases. Maybe card production fraud.
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You cannot copy a chip card, having it on hand means that it is authentic. We have had guests tell us that they had trouble getting a transaction authorized because they are outside of the country... but they go through immediately with the chip. I have had one transaction refused on swipe and insist on being processed as chip.
Most cards process as chip & pin, but there are some, especially out of country or the first time they are used where they come as chip & sign. To be honest, I prefer chip & pin because it says verified by pin and you can put it away and forget it. It never comes back, it's like having proof that the card and person were both there.
Well, eventually there will be home chip & pin, where you don't even get the CC number, they simply put the card into their home terminal and authorize. Your receipt would have the last four digits and no PCI compliance needed.
We also pay an added fee for keyed in transactions.
The fraud rates are VERY different. From what I understand card present fraud is down by about half. Processor breach, like the one that occured a few months ago will stop. It currently does nothing about card not present fraud, but that too will stop as they move to home chip & pin. Essentially, most of the fraud moves to card-not-present and foreign transactions. And as the rest of the world moves to EMV the fraud will basically move to card-not-present until home EMV is fully implimented.
 
Hypercom T7 plus here, and I'm about to dump it. Went to Square last month. No problems. Now I can take Amex and Discover as well as Visa and Mastercard. Flat percentage fee. No rooms booked in a month - no junk fees. Overall I'll do better. As of this coming weekend, its all square, all the time.
regular_smile.gif

Edited to add: I was given an Iphone 3G a few months ago. Love it.
 
Hypercom T7 plus here, and I'm about to dump it. Went to Square last month. No problems. Now I can take Amex and Discover as well as Visa and Mastercard. Flat percentage fee. No rooms booked in a month - no junk fees. Overall I'll do better. As of this coming weekend, its all square, all the time.
regular_smile.gif

Edited to add: I was given an Iphone 3G a few months ago. Love it..
Skamokawa said:
Hypercom T7 plus here, and I'm about to dump it. Went to Square last month. No problems. Now I can take Amex and Discover as well as Visa and Mastercard. Flat percentage fee. No rooms booked in a month - no junk fees. Overall I'll do better. As of this coming weekend, its all square, all the time.
regular_smile.gif

Edited to add: I was given an Iphone 3G a few months ago. Love it.
Will have to keep an eye out for this. I did a comparison of 2 months of my current processing charges (including all fees, service charges etc. - my total bill) vs the flat % on Square. (for the comparison, I based everything as if it was all swipped, no keyed in which I did have Square charges 2.75% for swipped / 3% keyed)
Results: One month my charges were 40% less than what it would have been on Square; the 2nd month, they would have been almost the same, $2-3 difference. So it will be interesting to do this same test for a while to see how it plays out.
 
Hypercom T7 plus here, and I'm about to dump it. Went to Square last month. No problems. Now I can take Amex and Discover as well as Visa and Mastercard. Flat percentage fee. No rooms booked in a month - no junk fees. Overall I'll do better. As of this coming weekend, its all square, all the time.
regular_smile.gif

Edited to add: I was given an Iphone 3G a few months ago. Love it..
Skamokawa said:
Hypercom T7 plus here, and I'm about to dump it. Went to Square last month. No problems. Now I can take Amex and Discover as well as Visa and Mastercard. Flat percentage fee. No rooms booked in a month - no junk fees. Overall I'll do better. As of this coming weekend, its all square, all the time.
regular_smile.gif

Edited to add: I was given an Iphone 3G a few months ago. Love it.
We were just discussing this last night. Unfortunately for us in order to use Square (which I really like the idea of) we'd have to pay for a 'real' cellphone! The expenditure for having that would vastly outweigh the savings. Even if I got rid of my landline to make up part of the cost of the smartphone.
 
Hypercom T7 plus here, and I'm about to dump it. Went to Square last month. No problems. Now I can take Amex and Discover as well as Visa and Mastercard. Flat percentage fee. No rooms booked in a month - no junk fees. Overall I'll do better. As of this coming weekend, its all square, all the time.
regular_smile.gif

Edited to add: I was given an Iphone 3G a few months ago. Love it..
Skamokawa said:
Hypercom T7 plus here, and I'm about to dump it. Went to Square last month. No problems. Now I can take Amex and Discover as well as Visa and Mastercard. Flat percentage fee. No rooms booked in a month - no junk fees. Overall I'll do better. As of this coming weekend, its all square, all the time.
regular_smile.gif

Edited to add: I was given an Iphone 3G a few months ago. Love it.
We were just discussing this last night. Unfortunately for us in order to use Square (which I really like the idea of) we'd have to pay for a 'real' cellphone! The expenditure for having that would vastly outweigh the savings. Even if I got rid of my landline to make up part of the cost of the smartphone.
.
If you have a Costco within a couple hours of where you live, you might want to check it out with them. We got a 4G Samsum android for $50 and the cheapest cell plan and our cell bill actually went down.
 
Hypercom T7 plus here, and I'm about to dump it. Went to Square last month. No problems. Now I can take Amex and Discover as well as Visa and Mastercard. Flat percentage fee. No rooms booked in a month - no junk fees. Overall I'll do better. As of this coming weekend, its all square, all the time.
regular_smile.gif

Edited to add: I was given an Iphone 3G a few months ago. Love it..
Skamokawa said:
Hypercom T7 plus here, and I'm about to dump it. Went to Square last month. No problems. Now I can take Amex and Discover as well as Visa and Mastercard. Flat percentage fee. No rooms booked in a month - no junk fees. Overall I'll do better. As of this coming weekend, its all square, all the time.
regular_smile.gif

Edited to add: I was given an Iphone 3G a few months ago. Love it.
We were just discussing this last night. Unfortunately for us in order to use Square (which I really like the idea of) we'd have to pay for a 'real' cellphone! The expenditure for having that would vastly outweigh the savings. Even if I got rid of my landline to make up part of the cost of the smartphone.
.
You can use the wireless connection and an ipod touch, from what I understand.
 
Love the idea of square, but all of our deposits are keyed in. Sounds like their .15 cent transaction fee for keyed entries and then charging 3.5% on top of that could add up. Does anyone know if they are flexible on these fees?
 
Hypercom T7 plus here, and I'm about to dump it. Went to Square last month. No problems. Now I can take Amex and Discover as well as Visa and Mastercard. Flat percentage fee. No rooms booked in a month - no junk fees. Overall I'll do better. As of this coming weekend, its all square, all the time.
regular_smile.gif

Edited to add: I was given an Iphone 3G a few months ago. Love it..
Skamokawa said:
Hypercom T7 plus here, and I'm about to dump it. Went to Square last month. No problems. Now I can take Amex and Discover as well as Visa and Mastercard. Flat percentage fee. No rooms booked in a month - no junk fees. Overall I'll do better. As of this coming weekend, its all square, all the time.
regular_smile.gif

Edited to add: I was given an Iphone 3G a few months ago. Love it.
We were just discussing this last night. Unfortunately for us in order to use Square (which I really like the idea of) we'd have to pay for a 'real' cellphone! The expenditure for having that would vastly outweigh the savings. Even if I got rid of my landline to make up part of the cost of the smartphone.
.
[/quote]
We were just discussing this last night. Unfortunately for us in order to use Square (which I really like the idea of) we'd have to pay for a 'real' cellphone! The expenditure for having that would vastly outweigh the savings. Even if I got rid of my landline to make up part of the cost of the smartphone.
[/quote]
It should work on an iPad too so you wouldn't have to buy a phone. They make it where you can turn your iPad into a cash register by connecting a receipt printer and cash drawer to it if you wanted or just use the iPad as a stand alone unit. I've been looking into this system lately.
 
Hypercom T7 plus here, and I'm about to dump it. Went to Square last month. No problems. Now I can take Amex and Discover as well as Visa and Mastercard. Flat percentage fee. No rooms booked in a month - no junk fees. Overall I'll do better. As of this coming weekend, its all square, all the time.
regular_smile.gif

Edited to add: I was given an Iphone 3G a few months ago. Love it..
Skamokawa said:
Hypercom T7 plus here, and I'm about to dump it. Went to Square last month. No problems. Now I can take Amex and Discover as well as Visa and Mastercard. Flat percentage fee. No rooms booked in a month - no junk fees. Overall I'll do better. As of this coming weekend, its all square, all the time.
regular_smile.gif

Edited to add: I was given an Iphone 3G a few months ago. Love it.
We were just discussing this last night. Unfortunately for us in order to use Square (which I really like the idea of) we'd have to pay for a 'real' cellphone! The expenditure for having that would vastly outweigh the savings. Even if I got rid of my landline to make up part of the cost of the smartphone.
.
If you have a Costco within a couple hours of where you live, you might want to check it out with them. We got a 4G Samsum android for $50 and the cheapest cell plan and our cell bill actually went down.
.
I pay $100/year for my cellphone plan. Not likely it would go down. I don't own any other electronics other than my laptop, a camera and an MP3 player. (The cellphone isn't mine.) Altho, I suppose I could do all of that with an i machine of some sort. Just not in the market for something else right now. Love watching the guests all using them, will get something later on down the pike, just don't want anything else right now. Not even an eReader. I'm sadly unmotivated to get another piece of gear.
 
Hypercom T7 plus here, and I'm about to dump it. Went to Square last month. No problems. Now I can take Amex and Discover as well as Visa and Mastercard. Flat percentage fee. No rooms booked in a month - no junk fees. Overall I'll do better. As of this coming weekend, its all square, all the time.
regular_smile.gif

Edited to add: I was given an Iphone 3G a few months ago. Love it..
Skamokawa said:
Hypercom T7 plus here, and I'm about to dump it. Went to Square last month. No problems. Now I can take Amex and Discover as well as Visa and Mastercard. Flat percentage fee. No rooms booked in a month - no junk fees. Overall I'll do better. As of this coming weekend, its all square, all the time.
regular_smile.gif

Edited to add: I was given an Iphone 3G a few months ago. Love it.
Will have to keep an eye out for this. I did a comparison of 2 months of my current processing charges (including all fees, service charges etc. - my total bill) vs the flat % on Square. (for the comparison, I based everything as if it was all swipped, no keyed in which I did have Square charges 2.75% for swipped / 3% keyed)
Results: One month my charges were 40% less than what it would have been on Square; the 2nd month, they would have been almost the same, $2-3 difference. So it will be interesting to do this same test for a while to see how it plays out.
.
Like you, a few months were less expensive on the present system, but the current, about to be dumped provider kept adding mystery fees. the last one nearly $100. They took it off "for one year" when I complained, but I'm tired of the junk fees in apparently made-up categories. Sheesh.
 
Hypercom T7 plus here, and I'm about to dump it. Went to Square last month. No problems. Now I can take Amex and Discover as well as Visa and Mastercard. Flat percentage fee. No rooms booked in a month - no junk fees. Overall I'll do better. As of this coming weekend, its all square, all the time.
regular_smile.gif

Edited to add: I was given an Iphone 3G a few months ago. Love it..
Skamokawa said:
Hypercom T7 plus here, and I'm about to dump it. Went to Square last month. No problems. Now I can take Amex and Discover as well as Visa and Mastercard. Flat percentage fee. No rooms booked in a month - no junk fees. Overall I'll do better. As of this coming weekend, its all square, all the time.
regular_smile.gif

Edited to add: I was given an Iphone 3G a few months ago. Love it.
We were just discussing this last night. Unfortunately for us in order to use Square (which I really like the idea of) we'd have to pay for a 'real' cellphone! The expenditure for having that would vastly outweigh the savings. Even if I got rid of my landline to make up part of the cost of the smartphone.
.
We were just discussing this last night. Unfortunately for us in order to use Square (which I really like the idea of) we'd have to pay for a 'real' cellphone! The expenditure for having that would vastly outweigh the savings. Even if I got rid of my landline to make up part of the cost of the smartphone.
[/quote]
It should work on an iPad too so you wouldn't have to buy a phone. They make it where you can turn your iPad into a cash register by connecting a receipt printer and cash drawer to it if you wanted or just use the iPad as a stand alone unit. I've been looking into this system lately.
.

[/QUOTE]
We were just discussing this last night. Unfortunately for us in order to use Square (which I really like the idea of) we'd have to pay for a 'real' cellphone! The expenditure for having that would vastly outweigh the savings. Even if I got rid of my landline to make up part of the cost of the smartphone.
[/quote]
It should work on an iPad too so you wouldn't have to buy a phone. They make it where you can turn your iPad into a cash register by connecting a receipt printer and cash drawer to it if you wanted or just use the iPad as a stand alone unit. I've been looking into this system lately.
[/quote]
I am looking into it right now.
using an ipad as the register. will report back.
 
I got the swipe and now need to decide, do I add each room in and then we add 2 for two nights, and then a discount button (which is easy to do) or do we just enter the total amount in?
I have to decide. I am not using it to keep track of room nights or anything, so it will function as a reg cc machine.
UPDATE: So this is very easy, I can have a photo menu which could be each room, or multiple rooms, or add ons, or gift shop sales, or gift certificate sales. But I think for ease of use I will just use it as the DOLLAR AMOUNT only including tax.
You can turn the discounts on or off, and set as many as you wish, or the tax percent on or off, ie less tax for gift shop sales, it is super simple.
There are reporting features as well.
 
Final update:
Swiped a card this morning, the guest loved signing with her finger. Was WAY EASY, way easier than this old clunky cc machine. (I will now be able to claim this iPad for business, fyi)
I immediately got an email telling me:
You accepted $253.00 from a card ending in 2963.

You can see more about this payment at (removed)

As of this payment, your Square balance is $246.04.

Thank you!
https://squareup.com/
I went in and there it was, everything so simple and concise. Done.
I called our merchant acct and cancelled our machine here (which used the phone line) and then called Amex and cancelled (they did not want to let us go, I told them we are still accepting AMEX, but through an online method, to which they said, oh, okay then...)
Fees are done.
I am very pleased.
I ordered a second Square/reader for redundancy, I went to the site click send second square/reader button, and it did it all. Had all my info.
 
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