Using your own SumUp referral code for a second account and card reader (for free)

[Tomikka]

SumUp users may be familiar with SumUps referral links & £50 bonus if your contact buys a card reader etc.

I’ve used that to create an additional account for myself to tidy up my payments for HMRC, I referred myself which gave me half price deals on the new account, but it also worked to be paid a £50 bonus on my original account

I’m small scale, nowhere near MTD, but on self assessment and a second SumUp business account will make my records tidier.

I was previously using the old SumUp lite handset via phone app until it died last year, and then as I have an iPhone can take contactless directly to my phone - but that way I cannot “insert card for PIN”.
With a referral code creating a new account gave me half price hardware, making a SumUp Solo viable at £48 incl VAT, which brings back the ability to insert card and has the bonus of its internal SIM (better chance of a connection getting through at busy events rather than WiFi / phone tethering)
30 days later (SumUp making sure that I don’t send it back) I’m pleasantly surprised that the £50 referral bonus still came through despite being the same person at the same address

Cost £48, bonus £50 giving me a separate account, a card machine, and I’m £2 up !

Does anyone have a link now? Do you recommend SumUp?

I am the treasurer for my local village hall and we are holding an event where people may want to may by card. We don't hold enough events to justify a monthly fee.

Any advice would be welcomed.

The referral code I referred to may not be necessary for you to get a discounted card machine (if you actually need one)
Card payment companies will often provide various offers.
The business “refer a friend” that I referred to was a deal in which:
Business A created a code from their SumUp app
Business B used the code link to set up a new SumUp account
With the link business B could buy a half price card reader
30 days later business A gets a £50 credit

I used this to create separate accounts with different business trading names, and was able to use the discount & bonus credit to get the handset effectively for free
(
I think it’s within the rules of Mumsnet & SumUp to give you a referral code, but I don’t think thats necessarily the best option for you
(You may not even need a card reader if you already have access to a suitable smart phone)

There are other ways to get discounts though.
A good tip if you’re not in a hurry is to go on the websites of a few card processing companies and place a card reader into the shopping cart but don’t check out, leave it waiting until they email you even more of a discount
That’s how I bought my first sumup machine

(((Othet card payment processing apps are available, and have similar fee rates)))

You obviously won’t need a full subscription & point of sale system, but those can be the cheapest transaction fees - only if you take enough £ each month to justify the subscription

So SumUp, Zettle, Square etc are options
They all have similar ranges in card machines which can be run in conjunction with a smartphone / tablet and app, or the card machine may have its own connection

Option 1:
No card machine needed, just a suitable smart phone. If your phone can pay by contactless (Apple Pay, google pay etc)
All you have to do is sign up, install the app and take payment

Option 2:
Basic card machine. These need to be operated through the app using your smartphone or tablets connection

Option 3:
Card machine with its own connection (they use the mobile network, but can still work on low quality connections.
They cost a bit more £. Not necessary if you are happy with your internet connection

You can also spend even more with receipt printers etc, but all of card readers offer the option of text/email receipts or you could write receipts if required

Note- providers can now offer “offline payment” if the network is unavailable. This sounds good in theory, but if there is no connection then it cannot verify funds are available. The actual charged are checked when you next connect and could bounce leaving you out of pocket
I obviously don’t recommend that

For the account user name & password you should set up the account as treasurer, and can use that to log in and take payments.
If anyone else could handle card payments do not give them your account name / password as that gives the ability to change the bank account that gets the payouts
Instead you can add a “staff account” and give relevant people access. That way they can take payment but cannot change other details

Using SumUp as an example:
the transaction fee is 1.69%
That gets rounded up if the sale is too low, such as a £1 sale will payout £0.98 as the fee rounds up
(Note you must not charge more for card payments to cover fees - it must be £1 whether card or cash)

The app is free, and the account is free

A basic card reader without its own connection is the Solo Lite at £25 excluding VAT
The next level up is the Solo with its own connection at £79 excluding VAT

The referral code mentioned would give you half price but you may also be able to get half price in a welcome offer

Thank you @Tomikka for such a comprehensive reply. When I’ve properly woken up (and had some caffeine) I will get onto this. The 1st event is in 11 days time so I don’t have ages to sort this out but will get onto it today. I am very grateful.

You will be tight on the time to decide if you need to order something, but for the basic need you may not have to as long as you have access to a smart phone that could handle contactless

There is the choice of different providers, and you can pick all of them to see how things are (and also to still be able to take payment if one system went down )

The main players charge similar fees, and as they tend to be “one point something percent” if your individual sales are quite low the rate will round to about 2%
A £10 sale on SumUp at 1.69% would round to 1.7% with 17p in fees

I’ve used SumUp for the last few years so that’s my personal choice
But iIf you have a suitable smartphone then look up and install a couple of options to try

The other common providers are square and Zettle/iZettle/PayPal (they keep name changing)
Each has their own price rate and may mix fixed & percentage charges (eg 1% and 20p would work out to 21p fees on a £1 sale because of the fixed amount, but as the value of a transaction goes up the fixed portion could save your fees)

If you can install the apps on a phone and sign up an account
(for treasurer proposes ideally use an email address relating to the group so that it can be handed over at a later date and also for clarity on the accounting)

For testing you could just personally sign up to a couple just to test if you don’t want to set up a whole load for the group just for testing
The simplicity of signing up the group is that you would get transactions and balance statements in the groups name

Once installed make a test transaction of £1, to show that it flashes up and also you can really charge yourself - then refund it

If you don’t have a suitable contactless smart phone then you would need a physical card reader, or see if there is anyone who could lend one (set up your own account and log their machine into you for the event)

If you can’t run straight from your phone nor borrow one then you would need to think of buying quickly to allow for postage times (they should be just a few days)
You might be able to buy locally in WHSmiths, stationery shops etc I’ve even seen them in Halfords (but would pay the full retail price)
I doubt that the shopping cart trick for a discount offer work in the time that you have

The SumUp SoloLite should be buyable at £30, but it needs you to use the app and only thing it offers above the app on phone is the ability to insert the card for chip & pin

The SumUp Solo gets pricey at almost £100, but it works on its own network connection and does not need to be paired with a phone. If you can get a good deal then it’s more worthwhile

I’ve added a referral code to the thread here -

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/promo-codes-bargains/5588241-sumup-business-card-readers?utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=share

But, as I say, you won’t necessarily need to buy a handset and the app / phone might be good enough for you