What is surcharging? Is it right for your business?

If you have to get in a car or truck to travel to your customers, this article is for you. Whether you’re grooming dogs, running bootcamps, cleaning houses, offering home-based beauty treatments, or selling from a market stall: how you configure your payment system will be distinctly different from a standard bricks-and-mortar business. This article will outline the simplest and most affordable way to take payments instantly and manage your business finances, all from a single app on the smartphone you already own. Goodbye cash, invoicing, and bank transfers. Hello instant on-the-spot payments on your smartphone. Just because you run a mobile business, doesn’t mean you have to wait to get paid, nor do you need to purchase an EFTPOS machine designed for countertops. If you travel to meet your customer, you’ve got an opportunity to get paid on the spot, with no extra hardware, and no need for follow-up invoices (aka late payments). Today, the best solution for mobile merchants and market stall holders is to accept contactless card payments on a smartphone .  Introducing: Tap to Pay In Australia, the ability to use your smartphone like a payment terminal is known as Tap to Pay and is available through payment apps such as Zeller, for use on both iPhone and Android devices. Using NFC technology (the same technology behind mobile wallets), apps like Zeller can turn your phone into an EFTPOS machine, allowing your customers to simply tap their card or digital wallet to your phone. What is the most affordable Tap to Pay solution? In Australia, the most affordable and comprehensive Tap to Pay provider is Zeller. With one flat rate of 1.4% per tap for all cards, including American Express, no hidden fees or lock-in contracts, and the ability to automatically pass on the per-transaction fee with a surcharge, Zeller’s solution provides businesses with the most value for money. While other providers such as Westpac, ANZ or Tyro offer similar rates, their pricing is not wholly transparent and the sign-up process is lengthy. Furthermore, they require a separate app to use the Tap to Pay feature, while Zeller offers it as a built-in function within a single app, where you can also manage your accounts, cards, invoicing, tracking, and more. Meanwhile, Square offers a service similar to Zeller's, but at a higher rate of 1.6%. Other providers include NAB, SumUp, Pebl and Airpay, however their solutions are often only compatible with either Android or iPhone and frequently involve higher per-transaction fees and lock-in contracts. Why is Tap to Pay with Zeller the best payment system for mobile businesses? When you sign up to Tap to Pay with Zeller, you also benefit from Zeller’s whole ecosystem of financial tools to help manage your business finances, including (but not limited to) a free transaction account, debit card, and tools for sending online invoices and getting paid online with convenient payment links. If you’re not already convinced, here’s every reason why Tap to Pay with Zeller App is the top-rated payment solution among mobile merchants and market stall holders:  1. You already own the hardware, simply download the app.  By using your smartphone, you eliminate upfront hardware purchase costs, monthly terminal rental fees, and maintenance overhead. Plus, you don’t need to worry about carrying another device. Your payment solution is in your pocket.  2. You can accept all contactless payments. Tap to Pay caters to all customer preferences by accepting contactless debit/credit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and other digital wallets. 3. The pricing is simple and predictable.  Zeller’s easy-to-understand pricing makes financial planning and reconciliation simple. Tap to Pay with Zeller App incurs a simple 1.4% per-transaction fee, which can be passed on to your customer automatically by toggling surcharging on. There are no hidden fees or lock-in contracts. 4. Employees can accept payments on their smartphones from the same account. If you have multiple staff members, they can take payments on their own devices (Android or iPhone) all with the same single business account. Plus, with Zeller, you decide what each team member can access, keeping sensitive account information protected. 5. You gain access to a free point-of-sale system. With Zeller POS Lite, you can build and manage a library of items by adding details like name, description, price, and image. This makes checkout faster, allows you to issue itemised receipts, and is especially helpful for businesses that sell a wide range of products or process refunds. You can also import a pre-existing item library instantly to your Zeller Account via a CSV file upload.  6. Your funds are ready to use straight after making a sale .  If you choose to settle your funds into Zeller Transaction Account , you will have instant access to your funds, which you can spend immediately using Zeller Debit Card . Alternatively, settle funds into a third-party bank account and access your funds the next business day.  7. You can send digital receipts to your customers via SMS or email. Not having an EFTPOS machine does not mean compromising on professionalism or efficiency. Tap to Pay lets you offer customers paperless digital receipts, simplifying record-keeping.  8. You can accept payments over the contactless limit with a PIN entry.  Tap to Pay allows you to securely accept payments, even those above the standard contactless threshold of $200. Customers are invited to simply enter their PIN on your phone's screen.    9. You can use the service as much or as little as you need (it won’t cost you). With no lock-in contracts or exit fees, you can use Tap to Pay whenever you need to – whether that’s once a week, once a month, or once a year. It’s a solution that is as flexible as your business, and is especially good for market stall holders that operate seasonally.  10. You can track sales and manage transactions with a user-friendly dashboard.   Log in to your Zeller Dashboard or Zeller App to access a comprehensive overview of all your received payments and expenses paid for with your Zeller Debit Card. With all your business finances consolidated, you can easily access detailed analytics and trend reports. 11. You can integrate Zeller with your Xero accounting software. When you accept payments with Zeller, every sale and settlement can be easily reconciled in your Xero accounting software with a Xero Bank Feed integration . You no longer need to worry about manual transaction imports, all your settlement data will appear directly in your Xero account.   How secure is Tap to Pay with Zeller App? Zeller Tap to Pay uses the same secure NFC technology as in-store terminals, and is fully compliant with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). Transactions are encrypted end-to-end and processed in real time, so there’s no delay and no doubt. No sensitive card information is stored on your device, which means every tap is protected for both you and your customers. How do you get set up with Tap to Pay? Zeller Tap to Pay works on any Android phone with NFC, as well as any iPhone XS or later running iOS 16.4 or higher. You’ll also need a Zeller Account (free to set up) and internet access (Wi-Fi or mobile data). That’s it! No other hardware required. Follow these steps to get started:

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, with streetscapes around the country adorned by oversized candy canes, inflatable Santas, and enough tinsel to tickle a reindeer’s nose. Naturally, all this fun, festive frivolity comes with increased consumer spending, and businesses can sometimes experience payment bottlenecks if they’re not prepared. 1. Take payments down the queue with Tap to Pay. Got a smartphone? Great, you’ve got a mobile POS terminal. Simply open up the Zeller App on your smartphone, hit the hamburger in the top left corner (the three stacked lines), enable ‘Tap to Pay’, follow the prompts, and you’re ready to accept contactless payments. Tap to Pay with Zeller App can be handy in so many scenarios. For example, if you’re running a one-off stall selling Christmas hampers at your local farmers market, you can accept payments directly on your phone. No EFTPOS terminal needed — it’s that easy.. Another example could be a fishmonger with a steadily growing queue of people lining up to buy fresh seafood for Christmas Day. While one staff member takes orders and accepts payments at the counter using  Zeller Terminal, another can walk down the line using Tap to Pay with Zeller App on a smartphone as a secondary POS. By reducing customer wait time, you’re helping to ensure fish-fans don’t get salty and move on to a quieter nearby competitor. 2. Lock in bookings or large orders with Zeller Invoices. Sending professional invoices has never been easier. Let’s say you run a restaurant and have just received a booking request for a large Christmas party. To accept a deposit payment to secure the booking, you’d open Zeller Dashboard, whip up an invoice in a few clicks (including detailing the payment terms), create a new contact, and send the invoice for the client to arrange pre-payment quickly and securely with their credit card. Or perhaps you’re a bakery taking Christmas pudding orders. You can fire off the invoice in a few clicks, and then be automatically notified when your customer completes their order payment. And if your customer was slow to pay, they’d automatically receive reminder emails to prompt them. We’re proud to say that 75% businesses using Zeller Invoices get paid in under 24 hours. 3. Take card payments over the phone and send payment links with Virtual Terminal. Zeller Virtual Terminal allows you to manually enter a customer’s card details they’ve given you over the phone, or send them a secure payment link via email or SMS, right from Zeller Dashboard. But what if you don’t have their email address or phone number? What if you’ve been communicating with your customer purely on social media? No worries, Virtual Terminal can handle that too. Let’s say you’re a handmade jewellery creator crafting cute Christmas-themed earrings for customers on Instagram and Facebook Marketplace. You would take an order via your DMs, add the payment details into Zeller Virtual Terminal in a few taps, click ‘Copy Link’ and shoot your customer the payment link back via DM. Quick, easy and efficient, the way it should be. So whether you’re a sole trader, a medium sized business or even running a bigger operation, hopefully this article has given you some fresh ideas on taking payments this Christmas and beyond. If you have any questions on any of these additional payment options available to you, log in to your Zeller Dashboard to try them out, or give our local team a call on 1800 935 537 and we’ll step you through the process.

In Australia there’s often confusion between debit cards vs. eftpos cards. While the word EFTPOS can be used in multiple ways; in this instance we’re referring to the Australian debit card network, eftpos. While there are plenty of similarities between an eftpos card and a debit card, there are also a handful of important differences to be aware of when selecting a spending solution for your business. Read on to earn the difference between debit cards vs. eftpos cards. What is EFTPOS? The word EFTPOS stands for ‘Electronic Funds Transfer at Point Of Sale’, which is an in-person payment technology used to accept payments from customers for goods or services. You will frequently use an EFTPOS terminal when you’re shopping with your card or a mobile wallet. However when people talk about eftpos (with a lowercase ‘e’), they’re also referring to the privately run Australian debit card network. If you’re interested in learning more about how EFTPOS transactions work , you can discover the process behind every transaction, and how Zeller delivers seamless payments for your business at the article linked above. What are debit cards? Many business owners are familiar with the concept of debit cards. Debit cards are payment cards linked to your bank or business transaction account . Unlike a credit card, which withdraws funds with a pre-approved spending limit, a debit card withdraws money that is held in your account, reducing your balance instantly. Debit cards vs. eftpos cards Now you’ve got the background on debit cards vs. eftpos cards, let’s look at it in more detail. Australia’s eftpos system functions like a debit card system. Eftpos cards are linked to your business bank or transaction account, and when you spend funds using an eftpos card you are paying for those goods and services with funds held in your account. Therefore when it comes to debit cards vs eftpos cards — they’re more or less performing the same action. Some debit cards may have an approved overdraft limit, enabling the cardholder to spend beyond the balance of their business bank or transaction account limit. But in most instances when you’re spending on an eftpos card or debit card, your limit is defined by the balance held in your account. It’s important to keep in mind that eftpos cards can only be accepted within Australia, by merchants who have an EFTPOS machine set up to accept payments. You cannot use your eftpos card to spend outside of Australia. Differences between debit cards vs. eftpos cards The below table summarises some important differences between eftpos cards and debit cards. While the discussion on debit cards vs. eftpos cards can be confusing, for cardholders and merchants it’s important to understand the differences between each when deciding which card to use for your everyday business spending. Choosing the right debit card solution for your business If your business is searching for a convenient and affordable way to transact in-person and online, a Zeller Debit Card may be the perfect solution for you. Zeller Debit Cards are issued free, and give you the choice of transacting with virtual or physical cards. With no monthly fees or hidden charges, Zeller is the smartest and most affordable way to manage your business spending.