Cheapest EFTPOS after the surcharge ban

Are you a business looking for the cheapest EFTPOS after the ban? Trying to get the best rate you can before the surcharge goes?

You’re not going to be alone. Thousands — tens of thousands — of businesses around Australia are going to start copping charges on 1 October that they haven’t seen for years. And a lot of them are going to sit back and do nothing about it, because they don’t know it’s coming. Then the statement turns up mid-November, they have a proper look at it, and it’s oh, whoops. We’re going to have to do something here.

So what can you actually do so the surcharge ban doesn’t hurt you? There are four things. They’re in the order I’d do them.

1. Squeeze your current provider

Path of least resistance. Ring them and see what they can do.

Every provider knows what’s coming. They know their surcharging customers are about to look at their rate properly for the first time in years, and they know a chunk of those customers will start shopping around. So the leverage is briefly yours — and it’s yours now, not in November when everyone’s already made their arrangements.

Get an immediate discount if you can, and get it as fast as you can. That’s step one, and for a lot of businesses it’s the only step they’ll need.

I’ll be straight with you though: if you’re on Square, Stripe, Oolio or Lightspeed — the ones where the point of sale and the terminal and the payments all come bundled together — this is going to be harder. They know you can’t easily leave, and a provider that knows you can’t leave doesn’t sharpen its pencil.

If that’s you, I’ve got a tip for you further down.

2. Have a look at your hardware

This is the one nobody thinks about, and it’s often the biggest easy saving.

Do you actually need all those terminals? Have you got one sitting in the back doing nothing? A spare in a drawer? When you were surcharging it genuinely didn’t matter, because someone else was paying for it.

And the free-terminal era is ending. I know that because plenty of banks have told me. The 1.5 per cent and a free terminal deal is going to be over, or a lot less common. Sure, someone will still do it — but understand that you were always paying for that terminal. Whether it comes out of your rate or it’s a line on your invoice, you’re paying for it. When you had a fat surcharge covering it, who cared. Your customers weren’t complaining. Now it’s not the same.

So every terminal sitting around doing nothing could be costing you $250 to $500 a year, depending on what you’re on.

Tap on Mobile is the bit people are missing

If you’re a tradie with a terminal in the ute, ask whether you need the terminal at all. Tap on Mobile — taking the payment on a phone or a tablet instead of a dedicated machine — is a genuinely good way to save a dollar, because you’re not paying terminal fees. Yes, some banks charge a user fee for it. It’s a lot less than a terminal.

The reason take-up has been slow is that people say I’m not tapping my card on some bloke’s phone. I get it. But it’s just as safe — the terminals these days are running Android anyway, so there’s not much difference between the two.

Where this really stacks up:

• Tradies and small operators. Turning over a couple of hundred grand, or even a hundred grand. A personal trainer. Get rid of the terminal, take the payment on your phone.
• Anyone taking payment on delivery — logistics, couriers.
• A team of them. Say I’ve got ten electricians doing small jobs. Not the big ones that get paid bank to bank — I mean swapping out a light fitting, fixing a switch, a few hundred dollars up to a grand. In the old days you’d hand every one of them a terminal, because it was free and you were surcharging anyway.

Ten plumbers with a terminal each will cost you somewhere around three to four and a half grand a year. Put them all on Tap on Mobile and you’ll save a fortune.

Same thinking applies to online payments, by the way. They’re more expensive too. If you don’t need the channel, don’t pay for it.

3. Shop around

You’ve squeezed what you can out of your provider. You’ve been through your hardware and there’s nothing left to cut — no terminals ticking away in the back doing nothing. So option three is to go and compare, and get a better price somewhere else.

This is always the one people put in the too-hard basket. It’s the same reason people don’t refinance their mortgage. It’s not that they don’t know they’d save money.

And look, there is a bit of admin. You’ve got to do your ID. There’s a form. They’ll want your bank details, and your trust deed if you’re in a trust, or your partnership agreement. You’ve got to do your KYC — know your customer.

But if you use a broker, they’ll hold your hand through it. That’s the whole point of us. If you’ve got your bits together it’s ten or fifteen minutes, and most of it’s automated and online these days. Where it isn’t, we’ve built systems to make it easier. The only thing that stretches it out is needing your wife or husband or another director to sign, and even that’s not a big deal.

If that’s where you’re at, give us a call and we’ll sort it.

4. Look at other payment methods

Could you take more cash? QR code payments? PayTo, or something off the New Payments Platform?

I’ll be honest with you — for most businesses this fourth one isn’t really an option. If you’re a big business with large average transaction sizes, then maybe, and it’s worth the conversation. For everyone else it’s one, two and three that’ll actually move the needle.

The tip, if you’re stuck on a bundled point of sale

Here’s the tip I promised you.

I know it sounds really hard to change your point of sale. Your staff are used to it. You’re used to it. It feels like it’s going to be a real pain in the backside, and that feeling is the single biggest reason people stay on a deal that’s costing them money.

You know what? It’s actually not that big a pain any more. These days there are programs and systems that move your menu across really fast and program it in really quickly. It’s nowhere near the job it used to be.

If you’re with Uber Eats, they can click a button and migrate your menu. That’s how simple it’s got.

So weigh it up properly. You’re looking at potentially saving tens of thousands of dollars — not just thousands, tens of thousands, depending on your turnover. And let’s be conservative and say it’s only thousands. Against that, you put one staff member aside for half a day and they do the changeover with us, or with a point-of-sale company we recommend, or with another one you’ve picked yourself.

Probably worth it. It really is worth it.

Migration on up-to-date, high-spec point-of-sale technology is a breeze now. Much, much easier than it used to be. So don’t assume that because you’re on a bundle you’re stuck with it, because you’re not. Have a look around.

And there’s a second option people forget. You can keep the point of sale you’ve got — the one your staff know, the one you don’t want to relearn — and just move off their payments onto a standalone device. You don’t have to change both. Sometimes that’s the whole answer.

Have a crack, and don’t leave it

Do those three things. Don’t snooze on it.

Don’t let the bill turn up in November and sit there thinking why didn’t I do this sooner. Because every dollar you save is another dollar in your pocket, and in this cost of living crisis every dollar counts.

FAQ

What’s the cheapest EFTPOS option after the surcharge ban?

There isn’t one answer, because it depends on your average transaction size and how much hardware you’re carrying. For a small operator or a tradie, Tap on Mobile is usually the cheapest way to accept a card, because you’re not paying terminal fees. For a busy retailer or venue it’s about the rate and the number of terminals you actually need.

Should I ring my current provider or just switch?

Ring them first. It costs you a phone call, and right now they’re expecting it. Switching is the third option, not the first.

Are free EFTPOS terminals going away?

They’re going to get a lot less common, and that’s coming straight from the banks. Worth understanding that a free terminal was never free — it was built into your rate. When you were surcharging you didn’t notice. Now you will.

Is Tap on Mobile safe?

Yes. It’s the same contactless technology, and modern terminals are running Android operating systems themselves — so tapping a card on a phone isn’t a different thing to tapping it on a terminal. The hesitation is habit, not risk.

How much does it cost to switch EFTPOS providers?

Switching itself doesn’t usually cost anything. What you’re spending is the admin — ID, a form, bank details, your trust deed or partnership agreement, and KYC. Fifteen minutes if you’re organised, and a broker does most of it with you.

I’m locked into my POS and payments together. What do I do?

You’re less stuck than you think. Changing a point of sale is a lot easier than it used to be — menus migrate quickly now, and half a day of one staff member’s time is usually the whole job. And you don’t even have to change both: you can keep the point of sale and move just the payments onto a standalone device. Start by finding out what “locked in” actually means in your contract — how long is left, what it costs to get out, and what’s genuinely bundled versus just sold together. It comes apart more often than people assume.