Jas Singh’s parents bought Sheri Food Store twenty-five years ago. They provide a post office service, along with groceries, in one handy location to shoppers in Peterborough.
When Jas took a look at the card terminal statements, he was shocked to discover that they were paying hundreds of pounds per month. His parents originally signed up to take card payments five years ago and didn’t know that they could save money by switching.
Accepting cards is important to the business, with lots of competition in the area. It’s vital that Jas and his family accept card payments at the best possible prices, to maximise their profits:
“There’s so much competition in the area, with national chain stores and other independent food stores nearby. It would be difficult to remain profitable against bigger businesses without accepting cards, as so many customers prefer them to cash.
When I started working in the business, I began familiarising myself with all the monthly charges. When I looked at the merchant services invoice, I was shocked. We were paying over hundreds of pounds per month to accept card payments. It seemed ridiculous; the monthly cost was deducting a huge chunk of profit.
A few years ago, my dad implemented a minimum charge of 50p for card payments under £5 to cover the expensive transaction fees. Our customers were understanding, however when the surcharge ban was introduced in 2018, we were no longer able to recoup their costs.
We toyed with the idea of introducing a minimum spend of £5 if a customer wanted to pay by card. However, I didn’t like the idea of dictating how much a customer should spend in our shop. If we couldn’t offer them the ability to pay how they wanted, they’d just shop elsewhere.
It was important for me to find a balance between making our customers lives easier and making sure we didn’t miss out on profit, so I decided to shop around to see if there were any cheaper providers out there.
When I spoke to a Handepay advisor, he was horrified at how much I was paying.
There were so many hidden charges, including a huge fee for not being PCI compliant. When my parents had originally signed up, they weren’t aware that they had to complete questionnaires to remain compliant. They had never filled one in, so were being charged over £140 per month.
He advised me that if we switched to Handepay, there’d be no extra forms to fill in, they would take care of our compliance for free.
He carried out a detailed price comparison, and I was pleased to discover that we could save almost £4,000 per year by making the switch. This is a huge sum of money for an independent business like ours!
Our advisor was knowledgeable and helpful, and made switching to Handepay simple. Being able to speak to one person throughout the process, over the phone or email, made joining Handepay a breeze.
Even though I was so thrilled with Handepay’s service, I was still anxious to receive our first few invoices. When I saw the bill for our December transactions, I was so relieved to see that Handepay’s promises were true. We had paid the low transaction fees we were promised, with no extra charges, during one of the busiest months of the year.
Being able to maximise our profit with cost-effective merchant services will help our business to grow in years to come. We no longer need to recover costs from any card payments we accept; in fact, we can now accept more!”
