ATM's as a Profit Center for Your Business

I know that I have talked about ATM's before but I had a chance recently to discuss how profitable ATM's have been for various retail stores, restaurants, and bars.

For many business owners, the best option has been to be to only be responsible for stocking the ATM with cash. This means zero up front cost (other than the cash which is credited back to their bank account within 2 business days as it is dispersed from the ATM).  On the low end, a couple of businesses have been generating about $100/month in profit from the ATM surcharges.  Businesses with higher volume (or in areas with few ATM options for customers) have seen monthly profits over $300.

$100 - $300/month may not seem like a lot but that equates to $6,000 to $18,000 over five years. Not bad for something that has a zero investment cost.

MasterCard/Visa Lawsuit Settlement

Like many of you, I just received a very long notice explaining my rights related to the U.S. District Court settlement related to merchants who accepted MasterCard and Visa since 2004.

Since this is a 27 page document outlining our rights to obtain part of the $6 + billion (US) dollar settlement, I thought that it would easier to post resource information in case you have accepted MasterCard/Visa in the January 1st, 2004 to November 28th, 2012 time frame and have not received settlement information.

The toll free number for the case is 800-625-6440.

Email: info@paymentcardsettlement.com

Address: Payment Card Interchange Fee Settlement, PO Box # 2530, Portland OR 97208-2530

The official website is www.paymentcardsettlement.com

The proposed settlement equals one-tenth of 1% of your MasterCard/Visa transaction volume during an 8 month period starting July 29th, 2013.

Note that if you do nothing, you will get nothing. Be sure to call or check out the website to see if you qualify for part of the settlement.

Are you in the US and in need of no cost retail point of sale advice? I'm happy to help and can be reached on my cell at 208-340-5632 (mountain time) or via email at kevinantosh@gmail.com.

Tuesday Tip - Putting Transactions on Hold

Tuesday Tip: It happens – the person at the front of your check out line forgot their wallet/purse or changes their mind on what they want to purchase. Fear not, most retail point of sale systems allow you to put a transaction “on hold” so you can continue to check out other customers while saving the first customers transaction information. 

QuickBooks Point of Sale Pro users will find a “put on hold” button at the lower center of the point of sale screen, Microsoft RMS Store Operations users can select “ctrl” + “F12” (hold) from the point of sale screen, and NCR CounterPoint users can have a “hold” button added to the point of screen or added under “more buttons” on the point of sale screen. A great way to keep the check out lines moving!

Here is what the QuickBooks Point of Sale screen looks like:

 

And the Microsoft RMS Stores Operations point of sale screen after pressing "ctrl" + "F12":

 Finally, the NCR CounterPoint (button location will vary depending on how your dealer programmed the system for you - on my version they appear in the upper right part of the screen):

 

Naturally, each system also has its own way of recalling transactions on hold (it is possible to put more that one transaction on hold at a time).

If you are not currently processing a sale in QuickBooks Point of Sale Pro, then the "Put on Hold" button with change to a "Held Receipts" button which will show you a list of transactions currently on hold.

"F11" is the "Recall" key in RMS Store Operations followed by selecting "Recall a transaction from on hold" to see your list of transactions on hold.

For NCR CounterPoint, the "Hold Recall" button should be in the same location as your "Hold" button. It does depend on how your NCR CounterPoint dealer programmed your button menu.  Note that you can change how the buttons appear in NCR CounterPoint - just ask your dealer or DirectPOS for help.

Are you in the US and in need of no cost retail point of sale advice? I'm happy to help and can be reached on my cell at 208-340-5632 (mountain time) or via email at kevinantosh@gmail.com.