Taxi Driver Online

We somtimes have connection problems with Sumup but payouts are next day apart from weekends.

Easy to know you've had it a few years, because of course it's now simply called Zettle, although no doubt your old reader will still be an iZettle until it dies

To be fair, the reader does seem quite robust in the physical sense, considering the amount of times I've dropped it, or it's slipped off the dashboard onto the floor etc

And when it's slow or unresponsive, never sure when it's maybe a phone signal problem, or a bluetooth conflict or issue, or whatever, so maybe totally unfair to blame the card reader all the time

So any comments on the new Lopay reader? (And presumably Cerebrus is still fine with his...)

I see SumUp is doing a Black Friday deal of £19 for the basic reader thingy and free shipping.

The LowPay terminal seems to be £24, but can't work out the P&P costs, but assuming just a couple of pounds or so.

But if LowPay is really just a 1% charge compared to 1.8% for Zettle and SumUp (figures rounded for simplicity), then that's a very good deal, but on the other hand seems a bit too good to be true...

Am I missing something?

Been using lopay since I posted on here, it’s brilliant, yes I find it that good, you don’t need a terminal I sometimes use just my phone to take payment, I have it set to next day payment 0.99%, you can have immediate payment but the % goes up, if you wait longer it goes down, they also have refer a friend and you both get £1000 of free fees, it does loads of stuff to long to list.

Thanks, MCF - LoPay looking favourite at the moment. And looks like it's particularly attractive to taxi drivers - can't remember where I read it earlier, but think it says most LoPay customers are cab drivers

And, yes, have been looking at that tap-to-pay phone option as well...

Right on cue, my Zettle reader was unresponsive out at the station this afternoon. Got a fare out to the station off a rank in town, so that was good, then the reader wouldn't do anything

It clocked £16, but they only had £15 cash, so I got that. Only £1 light, but still a pain. Suppose I was lucky they had cash at all.

But worse was that in the meantime another car dropping behind me got in front because of my delay trying to get the reader to work, and one place on our station rank can easily cost an extra hour or so.

Worse, the driver didn't follow the normal protocol for ranking at the back, so I ended up having to do an umpteen-point turn, which I'd have avoided if the Zettle reader had done what it's supposed to do

Then ten minutes later the driver who got in front of me decided not to wait at the station anyway, so I'd got all stressed out over nothing, at least as regards getting my place in the rank queue, if not the umpteen-point turn

I'm still on my original lopay reader, no issues at all. It's worth buying the purple silicon case for it. Without it the machine is quite slippy in hand being just a hard plastic case.
I'm on next business day payout, and all my weekly figures show that my commission is near enough always 1.03%, so I assume a few people must use business cards/American express/international card etc that attract a higher commission than personal cards.

Still have my Sumup account and setup on my phone to take payments on that if needed. I gave my sumup reader to the sports club I'm a member of.

Thanks, Cerebrus. Decided to give Lopay a go, and been using the reader a couple of days now (decided not to spend another fiver on the case...always begrudge spending several pounds on what's little more than a lump of plastic, although I get what you mean about handling it etc.)

But already wondering if it's any better than Zettle, although I'll take a few days to get used to its positives and negatives.

(You'd think they'd all be much of a muchness, but it's a very different beast, at least in terms of connecting it etc, but can't be bothered going into it all just now )

But already a bit miffed about the commission rate - as you'll know, it's 1.99% for non-domestic Visa/Mastercard, Amex and business cards

Which I was kind of aware of, but having thought about it a bit more, I wouldn't be surprised if most of my card payments here come into the higher commission category - golfers from overseas, tourists etc. Only noticed it when I had a £17 student run off the train earlier, and noticed the commission was a lot more than I'd expected - roughly 2%. But it was a student from overseas, obviously with an overseas card, and there will be tons of those in St Andrews.

So what I gain with the 0.99% rate I'll probably lose with the 1.99% rate on the overseas cards etc, assuming most of my payments are at the higher rate.

Did then wonder if it's a good idea to ask the payer what kind of card they're using, and could then use Zettle for the overseas stuff (assuming it's actually working ). But that would just be too much hassle, I'd guess, and probably better just to concentrate on getting the payment through. (Might be worth asking on a big run, but not the £5 runs around town.)

(On a £10 run paid on an overseas/business/Amex card I'd be 2p better off using Zettle as compared to Lopay, so maybe not really worth the hassle asking people what kind of card they have etc )

Wise words - doubt it'll cost much more than Zettle overall for me, but certainly puts a dampener on the much lower standard commission if (like me) you're likely to take payments mostly from international travellers.

Was about to say that they must have upped the charge for international cards from 1.79% to 1.99% since your post, but I think the 1.79% is for the weekly/Thursday payout.

The 1.99% is for the daily payouts on international cards

Or 2.79% for instant to bank on international cards

So if it's domestic payments the Lopay rate is significantly cheaper, but not for the international (or business) stuff.

(And I'd forgotten about the free reader deal with Lopay - that was presumably a promotional thing when they were trying to get a foothold a couple of years ago. Mine was £30.95 with postage )

At least the Zettle commission rates and payouts were a lot more straightforward

Think I've changed my mind about compulsory card readers - bring back compulsory cash instead

you will need to explain this CASH to me


in 2 days I have done 2 cash hires

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i started out with nothing and ive still got most of it left

Yes, Jozef, the cash ship has deffo sailed some time ago, and won't be reversed.

Until I'm prime minister, at least

No tips, then?

add 1 more cash hire today,bare fare

I dont know about you but I find tips are VERY RARE on a credit card payment

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i started out with nothing and ive still got most of it left

Seems to be a worldwide thing, Jozef - not many tips for automated payments, whether via an app, or hand held card reader, or whatever

Still a reasonable amount of cash payments here in sunny St Andrews, and last couple of days have nicely demonstrated the divide (at least nicely in terms of demonstrating the difference, if not nice in terms of the week I've had )

So the younger people are generally card payers, and students almost always pay be card. And almost never tip

But had a few older couples going to hotels etc in the last few days - all cash, and all have given a wee tip (50p to £4).

(Cheap deals in the local hotels at the moment, so it's generally not overseas visitors, who are more inclined to pay by card...and are the ones who mean I won't be able to take advantage of the 1% domestic card rate on my Lopay reader )

So roughly speaking, as the older people die out, so will the cash payments and tips.

But I'll probably be dieing with them, thus I'll be dead and buried before the cash and tips disappear completely

(Although I suppose statistically I'll last another six years until my state retirment age anyway )