How to sign up for and USE a mobile card payment device thingo!

I’ve got a new gadget! It’s an MYOB PayDirect Reader (‘thingo’ for short!). Now I can take payments on the go. It’s super-fab. Can I tell you about it?!

This post is sponsored by MYOB PayDirect but the opinions are all mine!

Why I wanted it

Many of you know that I happily take credit card payments online. But you might not have realised that until recently I couldn’t take credit cards in-person-in-real-life! True!

Now a lot of my work is online so that’s not as bad as it sounds but there are a couple of times in my offline life that I could really use a mobile payment thingo. And it’s got a tad annoying that I don’t have one.

One of these times is when I sell my book at speaking events (after I’ve given a talk).  Maybe you bought one! Or maybe you didn’t ….You see although my book is not at all expensive (just $25!) about half the people I meet at an event just don’t have $25 on them. Or if they do, they want to keep it to pay for a coffee, the bus fare, and emergencies. Just as I explained here: customers don’t like to part with their cash!

D’you know how I used to get round this? I would let people give me their credit card details and I’d upload them into my website (where I could take payments) later. Eek! I hated doing that. It all felt VERY insecure! I also used to do an honour system where I’d let people take the book home and ask them to pay later, via my website, when they got a chance. Can I say that although that was totally c-r-a-z-y  EVERYONE paid! You’re a very honourable bunch! Thank YOU!

Getting a gadget

So given what I’ve just told you, you might be wondering why it’s taken me so long to get a mobile payment device. Well honestly I don’t need to take mobile card payments very often and, as I thought the whole set up thing was going to be painful, I just didn’t bother. Silly me!

Anyhoo I have now taken the plunge and got myself this little baby….It’s an MYOB PayDirect Reader. Henceforth known as my MYOB Pay Direct thingo!

That’s it by my phone. Look how small and cute it is! Very handbag sized!

Getting an MYOB PayDirect thingo

OK so it turns out to be embarrassingly easy to get a mobile payment thingo from MYOB. You just need to send them your ABN, Business Bank Statement and Drivers License and they sort out the rest. Just like that!

And I think I got this box just one week after I sent in my details! QUICK!

 

Setting the MYOB PayDirect thingo up

Now I have to admit, I was VERY worried about this. I’m not the most gadget-y person and when I saw the instructions talk about installing an app on my phone, logging in with a password and then  – gawd help me – connecting my phone to the MYOB PayDirect Reader via Bluetooth, I did feel a bit faint. Maybe it’s just me but I’ve not had a lot of success with Bluetooth-connecting-thingys.

Turns out l wasted a good worry! Setting it up was SO simple. Ding, ding, ding and it was ready to go. Phew!

Taking a payment

Right. So MYOB PayDirect works using your phone (iPhone or Android) AND the MYOB PayDirect Reader thingo. You use the app on your phone to input the purchase details and the MYOB PayDirect Reader to swipe your customers card. The app ‘talks’ to the Reader to make it all work.

Did I make that sound complicated?! It’s really not…..

I decided to test the MYOB PayDirect thingo with a teeny purchase on my OWN credit card. So that’s just me paying myself. Here’s how it went:

1 I started by going into the app – you get a dashboard that looks like this

 

2 I then pressed payment – got a screen like this. Typed in the amount (yup I splashed out and tried with 1 cent):

3 My phone then said this:

4 And so did the MYOB PayDirect thing

5 So I popped my card in, typed in my pin and then it did it’s thing and…

 

6 Hurrah! I’d taken my first mobile card payment

7 And look at this! You can even send your customers a receipt (by email or SMS). Here’s the one for my 1 cent purchase!

8 Then two days later here’s my 1 cent payment landing in my business bank account!

See, taking card payments is EASY!

Real card payments!

So after my practise session with my own credit card I tried taking REAL payments from REAL customers. Ha! It’s SO easy. Why didn’t I do this before?!!

PS: The other thing I sell in real life is coaching. I have lovely coaching clients who visit me and pay by EFT later. That’s all worked well but it’s a bit of a faff invoicing them and then chasing payment. Now I can just whip out my MYOB PayDirect thingo and my clients can pay there and then. EASY!

The cost of MYOB PayDirect and other super-important info!

So here’s some useful things to know about MYOB PayDirect:

1 You can use it to take payments wherever you are

2 It’s super simple to set up and once you’ve been approved, you just download an app, link to the MYOB PayDirect thingo and you’re ready to go

3 Payments you take via MYOB PayDirect appear in your bank account within TWO days. That’s super-speedy

4 MYOB PayDirect takes debit cards as well as credit cards.

5 You DO need to buy the MYOB PayDirect thingo (officially called the MYOB PayDirect Reader). It costs $199 (plus GST)

6 There are three pricing plans. You can find all the details here. You pick the one that suits you best depending on how much your monthly transactions are likely to be.

7 If you’re on the ‘smallest plan there are NO ongoing fees and you pay 2.8% per transaction. Not too much when you remember how important it is to take credit and debit cards!

8 If you are also using MYOB for your online accounting then the MYOB PayDirect thingo *automatically* updates your accounting records! Oh My! Now that is easy bookkeeping….!

Want to know more about MYOB PayDirect?

If you’d like to have a chat with the lovely people at MYOB PayDirect just fill out the form below and one of them will contact you. Or you can pop along to their website here!

 

PS This is part of a series I’m doing about taking mobile payments! If you don’t want to miss the next one you can get it in our weekly FREE Snacks email!

This post is sponsored by MYOB PayDirect. I only accept sponsored posts from products that I think are useful to you and that I would use in my business. Sponsored posts make a valuable contribution to the upkeep of The Business Bakery and enable us to continue to provide you with fabulous free content!

 

 

 

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