Support for USB credit-card readers that would interface with the software

[UncleKage]

Using external credit card terminals is becoming cumbersome. Could we attach a USB credit card reader that would allow a staff member to simply swipe the card, and have it read the total amount to charge right from the screen? It would eliminate any more attendees getting their memberships for 60 cents.

[kitsuta]

USB credit card readers are keyboard inputs, so there's no software support required for this.

That being said, the situation you describe should not have happened within RAMS. We use Stripe, which already charges the correct amount without requiring anyone to enter the charge amount. If people were instead using the offline credit card terminals, there's nothing we can really do about that - they're not in any way attached to this system.

[UncleKage]

Well, that's what I'm saying. I'd like to get card swipers that would allow the staffers to just swipe the cards are registration, and we could tell PNC bank to take a flying leap.

[kitsuta]

That's doable, but keep in mind that there may be cause to use the old CC terminals as a back-up payment system because they do not require an internet connection. I've even had the Stripe servers go down during MAGFest once. Still, using Stripe as the primary method should reduce the error rate.

[UncleKage]

urf. The idea is to get rid of our merchant account entirely. It's costing us a fortune, and they just slapped a surcharge on us to "keep us in PCI compliance" even though we only ever use their equipment.

[earl7399]

MAGFest uses Stripe as primary, and Square as backup payment method. I'm not privy to the associated costs, but I'd be surprised if an e-mail to the BoD didn't result in an informative conversation.

Robert Earl r.a.earl@gmail.com FAX: 1-440-919-5086

On Tue, Sep 15, 2015 at 7:35 PM, UncleKage notifications@github.com wrote:

urf. The idea is to get rid of our merchant account entirely. It's costing us a fortune, and they just slapped a surcharge on us to "keep us in PCI compliance" even though we only ever use their equipment.

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub https://github.com/Anthrocon-Reg/ubersystem/issues/90#issuecomment-140580801 .

[thaeli]

Actually, I can give you the standard rates for both services right here. MAGFest has sufficient volume that they are in the process of applying for reduced rates; AC (and most events) would be paying the base rates. Keep in mind that these are all inclusive rates, there are no extra surcharges like traditional merchant accounts have.

https://squareup.com/pricing https://stripe.com/us/pricing

Also - it is possible that EMV ("chip cards") may affect how we handle card-present transactions in the future. Right now, we process either via Square card-present - Square is still using swipe at this time, but is rolling out an EMV reader - or via Stripe which processes all transactions as card-not-present. The recent EMV mandate in the US only applies to card-present transactions; for card-not-present there is currently no EMV mandate and there are no plans to apply one. This difference in risk is accounted for in the slightly higher processing fees for card-not-present transactions; although at the low volumes AC and most events process (credit card processors consider under a million bucks a year "low volume") the better rates where you'd really see savings from card-present rates aren't really available anyway without paying more in extra fees and surcharges than you're saving.

I do expect that there will be continuing innovation in this sector; my concern about rolling out any solution for card readers inside RAMS now is that the cost-effective options available today may be obsoleted in a couple years, and "next generation" card readers for direct integration with processors such as Stripe are not available yet. We could certainly implement a solution that uses $15 mag stripe readers to do the typing for you on a card-not-present Stripe transaction; that would be efficient at door but it is quite possible that the readers would be obsolete and unusable within one to two years. Granted, they're also cheap readers, so maybe we don't care about a potentially short lifespan?

[UncleKage]

If the card readers are that cheap, I do not mind using them for only one to two years. I'm in the "devil we know" camp, and don't like the idea of jumping to a different card processor every year. At $15, I could buy 30 of them for $450, which is less than the security crew's bar tab.

[ksonney]

....we resemble that last remark.

[kitsuta]

Issue moved to Anthrocon-Reg/anthrocon_plugin #82 via ZenHub.io