The iZettle card payment system is well worth a look. The company is very SME friendly, unlike the traditional card handlers. There’s no standing charge or transaction charge and the their percentage cut is fair.
Unfortunately they’re all Apple Fanbois, in spite of Android having 90% of the mobile market, and functionality on the most important platform lags. Everyone complains about it. But they’re such nice people when I speak to them on the phone, I still like them.
One case in point is that iZettle have finally launched a contactless reader. Yeah! Unfortunately the contactless feature only works on Apple, although my sources say that an Android upgrade is in development.
The contactless reader replaces the bluetooth-connected Pro version. In fact it’s the Pro version with a NFC reader built in, and it costs an extra £10, at £80+VAT (bargain).
If you’re a real tightwad there’s the £30+VAT (or free) blue keypad, which is actually quite a solid piece of kit, but it connects to the device using the headphone connector and modulating it’s data with burst of audio carrier (from listening to it). What could possibly go wrong?
Well, having tried it with Android 5.0 (Lollipop) I can tell you that it’s not going to work beyond Android 4.x until they fix the App. Version 2.5.1 of the iZettle App was supposed to support Lollipop, but take it from me, the support is far from complete.
Bluetooth Reader does work
I gave up and ordered the Reader Pro Contactless, the current bluetooth-connected unit, and I’m happy to report that seems to work perfectly. I was up and running within a minute; just pair it and off you go. For what it’s worth, this was with a Doogee DG700 with Android 5.0. iZettle is planning to release an update so it will make contactless payments, and (in theory), this will work.
Note that iZettle replaced the Reader Pro with the Reader Pro Contactless recently. They look the same. I have a hunch the older one will also work.