How Can We Get A Credit Card Terminal?

[spoonfed]

Hi,

For the last 6 months we have been operating a small (22 room) hotel in Phuket. We have a business account with Siam Commercial Bank, however we have been refused a credit card terminal because our turnover is less than 500,000 baht per month. 

We can organise for online payment for internet bookings, but it is obviously not always ideal for our guests to have to pay in cash on check out.

Does anyone have any ideas how we can get a credit card facility for use in the hotel?

Thanks!

[monty]

We have a credit card machine (visa/master) from Bangkok Bank.

Was no hassle to get (took a few weeks though as they were low on stock), applied for it on a personal bank account as that account was in use the longest...

I don't recall that they had a minimum turnover, although they did come over and asked if we had a problem with the device as credit card payments were low in he first few months.

Now we do maybe 200K to 300K/month through the machine.

Funds take a few days up to a week to appear in your account.

[torrenova]

Do they keep or want up front a deposit against charge backs ?

[monty]

Do they keep or want up front a deposit against charge backs ?

Nope, guess the charge back risk is small when running a hotel. Different when selling on-line stuff etc., much higher risk for charge backs.

I have had twice where people paid bills with credit card and later on disputed the bill with their credit card company. You'll then get a fax from Bkk Bank's head office where they request a copy of the signed slip.

In my case my POS system is coupled to the credit card machine, so I can give them the signed slip along with the detail of their bill.

Both times the bill showed a high amount of alcohol, so I guess they had a little chuckle at Bkk Bank and simply shelved the complaint!

So if you have one of those machine, double check the signature with the one on the card, and keep the slips safely archived, I copy them now immediately, as they use that thermal paper which tends to fade after a while...

[torrenova]

I scan any big receipts for stuff with guarantees etc. due to fading.

[g00dgirl]

How many percent fee do they charge on the transactions you put through your terminal from Bangkok Bank?

[sbk]

Kasikorn bank offered us a credit card machinel when we opened our savings account there, rates seem reasonable and they didn't say anything about a minimum amount of charges.

[monty]

How many percent fee do they charge on the transactions you put through your terminal from Bangkok Bank?

A tad under 3%.

Visa differs slightly from Master, but it's something like 2.6% on which they then add 7% VAT.

Which is why a lot of the low profit product vendors charge an extra 3% if you pay with plastic. Even though it's against the TOU of the credit card companies, it simply doesn't make sense taking a hit of 3% on an article which only carries a 5% profit margin!

No problem in the hotel / F&B beverage sector as we can easily absorb the cost...