What to Know Before Getting Started
Starting a New Business?
Selecting a credit card processor is often more complicated than most people expect. How much should you be paying in fees? Should you lease or buy equipment? Should you be locked into a service agreement for anything length of time? These considerations and several others are imporant to understand before signing up with any merchant account provider. Mistakes are easily made and can be very costly to your business. Along with seeing our top choices for payment services below, be sure to checkout this post to avoid common traps in the merchant services industry.
Considerations For Current Business Owners
Changing merchant accounts can be an expensive, complicated, and time consuming process. Are you really going to save as much as promised? Do you need to buy to new equipment or sign new lease agreements? Will there be other less accountable costs such as those associated with employee retraining? Before selecting one of our choices below, you may want to consider renegotiating your fees with your current payment processing vendors using the help of a contingency-compensated consultant. It can result in a dramatic decrease in costs without the pains of switching. In some cases business owner have also obtained substantial refunds of prior overcharges along with saving thousands in future processing costs. See this post to learn more about this little-known alternative to changing merchant account provider.
Depending on what type of business you run or where you do your shopping, you may have noticed a recent change at the checkout counter. At small businesses and large businesses alike, traditional credit card terminals are being dumped in favor of iPad-based point-of-sale (POS) systems. iPad POS systems are appealing to merchants because they require cheaper hardware, they can be integrated with other cloud-based services, and they allow for greater customization based on a merchant’s business type.
The growing iPad POS market has attracted the attention both of young start-ups and of major merchant account providers. Developers are devising a number of innovative point-of-sale iPad solutions, specifically for the service industry. For catering services, food trucks, or small restaurants, the ability to have multiple mobile terminals that are all tied into a central system is incredibly helpful. Even multinational businesses like Starbucks see potential in the technology.
If you are considering switching from traditional point-of-sale equipment to an iPad point-of-sale system, you should be sure to research which services are best for your business needs. Below is a list of the top five iPad POS providers that offer a wide variety of solutions for different industry types.
Our unbiased articles are supported in part by helping you find highly reviewed merchant accounts. You can learn more here.
Why These Merchant Account Providers
SalesVu
Founded in 2007, SalesVu is an Austin, Texas-based software provider that has partnered with Mercury Payment Systems and Century Payments to offer a full POS system for iPad and iPhone. SalesVu’s free POS app comes with a free card reader and allows for Quickbooks integration, end-of-shift reports, labor tracking, recurring billing, barcode scanning, automated discounts, tip adjusting, split checks, and invoicing. The company’s service also comes with a free, customizable e-commerce website and telephone support. SalesVu currently receives an “A+” from CardPaymentOptions.com, and although the company does not have a Better Business Bureau profile at this time, the BBB profile for Mercury Payment Systems is showing an “A+” rating.
For more information, see the SalesVu Website.
Shopify
Shopify is an Ottawa, Ontario-based merchant account provider specializing in e-commerce solutions for small businesses. The company’s POS app for iPad can be added to a merchant’s service package for $49 per month and includes a card reader, digital receipts, support for custom payment options, partial or split payments, synchronization with a web store, customer profiles, sales analytics, and a large app store for further customization. Shopify offers service tiers for $14/month (Starter), $29/month (Basic), $79/month (Professional), $179/month (Unlimited), and custom pricing for merchants who process over one million dollars in a year. Our review of Shopify currently awards the company an “A” rating, and the BBB is showing a grade of “A+.”
For more information, see the Shopify Website.
ShopKeep
ShopKeep is a POS system provider based in New York City. ShopKeep allows for inventory management, layout customization, labor tracking, customizable receipts, customer profiling, reporting, a mobile dashboard app for live sales tracking, and a barcode scanner. The service costs $49 per month per register, but it allows you to choose the credit card processor you would like to use or keep your current processor. This provider-agnostic flexibility is ideal for merchants who are looking to keep costs to a minimum. Our review of ShopKeep awards the company an “A” rating, while the BBB is also awarding the company an “A” rating at this time.
For more information, see the ShopKeep Website.
Vend POS
Vend began in 2010 as an New Zealand-based POS provider but has since expanded to the U.S., Australia, Canada, and the UK. The company’s POS software is compatible with iPad, Mac, and PC and is integrated with Element, Authorize.net, Tyro, Payment Express, and PayPal. Vend offers support for external hardware, customizable receipts, product and inventory management, customer profiling, sales reports, loyalty programs, and a number of add-ons for additional services. Vend provides service packages for monthly costs of $0/month (Extra Small), $35/month (Small), $59/month (Medium), $85/month (Large), and $169/month (Extra Large). Vend currently has an “A” rating on CardPaymentOptions.com, but the BBB does not have a profile for Vend at this time.
Other Merchant Account Options
The providers in this section may not have been researched as thoroughly or may lack a quality that prevented them from being listed above. We have listed them here to provide a broader view of potential merchant account options. Are you a decision maker with your company and believe that you should be listed below? Tell us here.
Breadcrumb
Breadcrumb is an iPad point-of-sale service formerly offered by Groupon. Launched in 2013 as a replacement for Groupon Payments, Breadcrumb includes a free app and card reader, custom menus, live support, and integrated Groupon deals. The company’s free service is called Breadcrumb POS and advertises a swiped rate of 1.8% plus $0.15 per transaction, although we have seen some evidence that this rate is only for merchants who run “Daily Deals” with Groupon. For an additional monthly fee starting at $99 per month, merchants can sign up for Breadcrumb PRO, which is described as a “complete restaurant POS.” Breadcrumb PRO comes with many more features than the free Breadcrumb POS service, and Breadcrumb also sells various hardware packages depending on a merchant’s needs.
Breadcrumb was acquired by Upserve in 2016. We currently assign Breadcrumb a score of “A,” and the BBB does not have a page specifically devoted to Breadcrumb.
If your business offers an iPad POS app, please leave a comment in the comment section below or contact us through our contact page in order to get listed in this article.
About Phillip Parker
Thank you for reading my review. I hope that it has helped you with your research.
Why I'm Qualified to Write About Credit Card Processing and Merchant Account Services
I'm a former credit card processing sales director who left the industry because I didn't like how it takes advantage of small business owners. It feeds like a leech on businesses and thrives by imposing fees that are nearly impossible to comprehend. Seeing a need for change, I left and built this website help business owners better understand the industry, research merchant services providers, and get refunds of excessive merchant account fees. My experience of working "behind the curtain" in the industry, and using that knowledge for good, has resulted in millions of dollars returned to hard-working small business owners as well as enterprise-level companies.
From the time that I starting working in the merchant services industry to when I left to create this website, I've been on the pulse of payments for nearly 15 years. It didn't seem fair to keep this "insider" knowledge to myself. To lift the fog, I've reviewed hundreds of companies, read thousands of user reviews, and learned the pricing tricks of every provider. If you have questions about credit card processing, you can find the answers on this website.