09 Mar 2015

A question about : Does anybody use iZettle for taking payments ?

Hi All,

Does anybody have any experience of using iZettle to take payments from customers ?

What has your experience been ?

Doing a search on this site there are comments about not being able to take Mastercard payments, but their website says that you can as they are EMV (Europay, Matercard and Visa approved) - may be recent approval ?

How have your customers responded ?

The website says no lengthy contracts - what does this mean, that there is effectively no contract ?

Are there any other similar companies / systems out there ?

Thanks in advance for any comments.

Best answers:

  • I looked at it but ended up signing with Worldpay.
    Similar thread her https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/....php?t=4341155
  • Myself and my mum both have one, we are both small craft sellers and don't sell at events often enough to make it worth paying for a merchant account or anything with a monthly or yearly cost. The bulk of our experience comes from using it at the open studio events my mum does. At the end of November she had a week long one and it got quite a lot of use. Basically we both have found it easy to use and very convenient (neither of us have business or merchant accounts so this type of thing is the only option for us). Bear in mind we both got ours in the beta period so the card reader was free.
    Mastercard is no problem. The problem arises with Visa, you can't use it normally, there's a fairly convoluted method where a text is sent to the customer's phone, they click a link to go to a website... blah blah, I don't really know as we just said we only took Mastercard.
    The customers we used it with have mainly been affluent people between the ages of 40-70 I would say. They have been very happy with it however most of them know my mum and I personally so that does give them some reassurance!
    There are no contracts, correct. You just pay a small percentage of each transaction. The money comes into your account about 4-5 days after the transaction.
    Other options - there seem to be more and more every day. So far none seem to have cracked the Visa problem. Most seem to charge similarly to izettle. I don't think there'll be room in the market eventually for all of them but for now the industry seems to be booming! Here are some I've found in my research over the past months:
    Payleven (their current offering is similar to izettle but importantly they claim to have the first genuine chip and pin phone cardreader coming which will be able to take visa no problem)
    mPowa (they require a merchant account but will set up one for you if you don't already have one and charge slightly more)
    Worldpay (for android and blackberry only currently)
    SumUp (you need to have a business bank account to get this one and also I believe you have to send them an authorised copy of your passport (banks usually charge for this))
    Paypal Here (coming soon)
    Intuit
  • Fully concur with Dave - depending on what industry you're in and the type of customer you have, you should be very wary about using iZettle. "Wait, you want me to give you my card and you're going to connect it to your phone" - you wouldn't believe how many times I've had this from my customers, which is very disheartening as I was trialing it to get away from using a card processing company (cardsave) that's just too expensive for me. But, turns out when compared to iZettle, I'm getting more transactions with a professional looking terminal.
  • Just ordered one! I own a boat cleaning business so I am often out and about, on site when finalizing with a customer and taking payment. It seems ideal. I think it helps for customers and makes the whole operation a bit more professional.
  • There is now a device that is in use in the States (and is coming to the UK soon) that plugs into the earphone socket on an Android mobile (or 3g tablet) and will read the chip on a chip'n'pin card. I believe it is called 'Squared' or something like that.
    Also, there is 'Pingit' for Barclays account holders, but this requires each party to have a Pingit app on their phone linked to a bank account (I think for sending payment you don't need a Barclays account either).
  • We have just completed a sign up with WorldPay and it is many times better than iZettle,
    They supply a chip and pin terminal which looks just like any other that customers are used to in shops. It connects wirelessly (through Bluetooth) to an Android 'phone so the customer does not handle your phone and, of course, you have the security of chip and pin and the widely known name of WorldPay.
    In addition you can take customer not present sales over the 'phone via a web interface.
    We were set up and had our terminal in 5 days and it really seems to render the others redundant.
    https://mobile.worldpay.com/
  • Thanks Chalkie 99.
    I do like the look of Worldpay - hopefully it will soon be available to link to an i-phone.
  • hi, I have completed a few transactions using izettle via my iphone with no issues until I did a reversal on a payment which after a few weeks the customer said hadnt gone back into his account, the issue turned out to be that it hadnt actually gone out in the first place so all was ok. The problem I have had is that I initially put a request in to izettles support dept via email to which i recieved a auto response giving me a case number asking them to look into the problem. Over a week has gone by now with absolutely no communication from Izettle whatsoever despite 3 emails to them requesting a update. I still have not yet recieved a response. It became apparent that unless i have missed it there is no phone contact for them that I could find. I run a small online retail business and to be honest it is A: embarrassing to say the least and B: certainly not good for business.
    As it turned out that the money hadnt actualy gone out in the first place I wouldnt have thought it that dificult for izettles support to spot that fact and inform me.
    The issues this has highlighted for me are that Thier support and communication is non existent and there is no way to contact thir support by phone so should they choose to ignore you there is nothing you can do. I for one will be looking for an alternative.
  • Try searching for Judopay. Theres a code A1676 that gets you a discount on the sign up fee. Apparently it's only been launched in the uk a few weeks
  • iZettle now have a chip and pin solution. It works for both Visa and Mastercard, as a bluetooth device connected to an iPad or iPhone. It's streets ahead of their first card reader. It costs about Ј50.
  • Arent iZettle run my T-mobile or EE??? This is a new division so im not surprised that customer service isnt fab although thats no excuse.
    I wouldnt do the mobile phone but buy a cheap tablet for Ј99 or less from ebay/ gumtree which will improve the perception instead of having ppl tap into a mobile. The separate chip and pin device that you can buy for Ј49 is way better than the iPhone only solution!!
    If the Visa thing is still an issue then get wifi running on your iphone via teethering or order one of those mifi things so you are connected to the internet and the cust can do the confirmation via their phone or on the tablet....
  • I have a 'micro business' where I do make overs and manicures at craft fayres and events. I tried iZettle but I found that people were apprehensive about putting their card into something that was attached to my phone. I'm now looking for something more professional looking but suitable for a very small business.