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CardAlpha

Accept Payments the Modern Way

Our Integrated point of sale and card terminal solution, streamlines sales and offers super-low fees to save time and money for your business.

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0.49% +1 p for UK consumer debit | 0.80% +1p for UK consumer credit | Monthly subscription for Card Terminal & PCI  £20+ VAT | Next working day settlements | Rolling monthly contract

For UK based sole traders and limited companies

Features

Our digital point of sale (ePOS) and card terminal solution comes packed with powerful features for all categories of independent retailers and small businesses

Point of sale

Add item details, images, prices, discounts and inventory levels in seconds via manual entry or batch uploads. Get sales reports and trends. Learn more.

Card Terminal

Our ePOS comes integrated with the next generation Pax A920 Pro card machine, so you can focus on your customers while we deal with the integration. Learn more.

Merchant Acount

We've partnered with Worldpay, UK's leading payments company for merchant accounts and next working day settlements

accessories

Issue email or QR code receipts. Or add optional hardware from Star Micronics - printers and the mPOP bluetooth enabled cash drawer. Learn more.

Phone based payments

Collect card details from customer over the phone and process them securely on the card terminal.

Web-store builder

Launch your web-store in minutes and sell online, with CardAlpha's web-store builder (on a separate price plan). Learn more.

Monthly rolling  contract.
Transparent pricing.

Pricing (for our ePOS and card terminal solution)
Monthly subscription and Transaction fee for UK issued cards (Visa and Mastercard)
£20 + VAT

Monthly subscription for terminal rental, software & PCI

0.49% + 1p

Base rate for UK consumer debit cards

0.80% + 1p

Base rate for UK consumer credit cards

1.90% + 1p

Base rate for UK business cards

Transactions which will attract add-on charges, on top of base rates (Visa and Mastercard)
1%

European cards

1.25% + 6.5p

International cards

0.30%

Phone base transactions

£20

Chargeback fee

* Worldpay will apply a monthly minimum service charge of £10, if monthly bill based on base rates is less than £10
** Transaction fee for Diners/Discover 1.5%, CUP and JCB 2.25%, Amex not currently available

Apply in three easy steps

1

Download our App

2

Apply for an account via the App by sharing a few details about your business

3

Order a card reader and any optional accessory (printer, cash drawer etc)

.. start selling

Once your account is ready, build item lists and start accepting payments

* The merchant card processing account is provided by our partner, Worldpay a regulated payment institution, after a few mandatory checks on the business ** any optional printers and cash drawers will need to be purchased from a third party hardware supplier, details available on CardAlpha's website

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I get your integrated POS solution?

Step 1: Download our app CardAlpha on your smartphone or tablet device (Apple or Android device)

Step 2: Select “SIGN UP” and provide your basic details.
If you operate as a Limited Company, we will require few details about yourself and your business including address, beneficial owner details, director's details etc. The App automatically connects to Companies House database to extract all available information to save you the hassle of entering details.

You can also apply as a Sole Trader by selecting that option from within the App.

Step 3: Provide necessary financial details.
We will require your anticipated or actual card volumes per month, ticket size of a typical card transaction, your annual sales turnover, etc. We will also ask you to provide details of a bank account where card settlements can be made. We will use this account for setting up a direct debit instruction for the purchase of the card reader. We will share with you the details of the card reader to be purchased by you, the applicable price and also the price for processing card payments. This is based on the information shared by Worldpay, our partner who provides the merchant acquiring solution. You will be asked to enter bank account details twice for these both purposes, once for Worldpay,  and the other for Go Cardless, for direct debits.

Step 4: Our payments processing partner, Worldpay, will verify your details for account approval.
Once all the above details are collected, we will pass on your application to Worldpay, which will perform underwriting and Anti Money Laundering checks against your application. They generally revert back within 48 hours with the status update. If your information is sufficient and valid, you will receive a contract from Worldpay. Kindly confirm this contract and upload your identity proof and residence proof as per their instructions.

Step 5: Sit back and relax. We will dispatch your card terminal to your business address.
Once you receive the terminal , you can start using the point of sale system, and the card reader to process sales transactions.

What are the different costs associated with the ePOS solution?

CardAlpha's integrated solution has two types of costs. The first is a monthly subscription currently set at £20+ VAT which takes into account a monthly rental for the card terminal,  the software and PCs compliance. There is no fixed term contract, you just pay for each month of use, in advance.  

The second type of cost streams are specified by Worldpay and relate to transaction charges for using scheme branded cards and are structured either as base rates or add-on rates for certain types of transactions. Worldpay also levies a monthly minimum service charge which "rounds up" the monthly bill for processing transactions unto £10, should the transaction charges for the month based on base rates not total unto £10.

The Pricings section on our website explains all costs in greater detail and when you apply for your account via the ePOS app, you will be provided with a list of these costs again on the App screen.

How do I start using the Point of Sale solution?

Step 1: Log-in to the ePOS app on your smartphone or tablet, using the log-in id and password you chose, when you signed up for CardAlpha.

Step 2: Add your store items to the ECR - electronic cash register within the app.
Add items to the electronic cash register (ECR) by keying in product descriptions, prices, VAT, product images, and inventory details or going to the Help section and requesting a batch upload file. The batch upload file allows you to upload many items at one go when you are building your product catalogue for the first time, and thereafter add additional items once you’ve built a product catalogue in the ePOS App.

Step 3: Using the Pax A920 card terminal and connecting to the ePOS App

Charge and Power-on:

Charge the card terminal for at least a couple of hours using the cable which comes with the terminal. Your device may have a  paper strip  wedged between the battery and the metal connectors to prevent discharge while storage.  You may need to pull out this paper strip before charging the device. Start the card terminal by pressing the power key located on the right side of the device, as the LCD screen faces you.

WiFi connection:
Locate the wi-fi icon on the top right corner of the screen and tap it.Choose your wi-fi connection, enter your wi-fi password and check if the wi-fi connection is securely established.

Establishing a link between ePOS App and card terminal:
On the card terminal screen, choose the CardAlpha app (which also has the CardAlpha logo to its left) and enter the same CardAlpha login-id and password, that you use, while logging-into the ePOS app on your smartphone or tablet device.Once you've logged-in successfully, the CardAlpha link app establishes an electronic connection between your ePOS app and the card terminal, and you can now start accepting payments.While taking payments through the day, you need to stay logged-in, into the CardAlpha link app.Occasionally the card terminal may go into a power saving mode, just tap the LCD screen to bring it back into active state. If for some reason, the CardAlpha link app is shown in a "dis-connected state" on the card terminal, try logging back into the App.

How do I add another user under my main account (for example provide a sub-account to my employee)?


Step 1: Log-in to the ePOS app and select the "help" menu.

Step 2: Select the "Employee management" sub-menu.
On the top right corner, you will see an "invite user" option. Use this option to provide an email address for the user, whereupon the user will receive an invitation email to open a sub-account. If no such email is received, a re-invite button (next to the delete account button) can be used to re-send the invitation email.

Step 3: Sub-user registration
The user will receive an email with a link stating, “complete registration”. Once they select this link, they will be taken to a page where they will need  to enter their phone number, and enter an OTP (one time passcode) which will be sent via a SMS message. They will then be asked to create a password.  

This concludes the sub-account registration process, and the employee can log-in using their email address and password, as a registered user. The employee can use the App for most functions, similar to the main account holder, however they will not be able to issue refunds for security reasons. All Refunds will need to be initiated by the main account holder.

How do I create a shopping basket and process cash or card payments?
  • Open our CardAlpha app, and select the Payments from the bottom menu.
  • Assuming that you have already added your store items into our App's ECR - electronic cash register, search and select the items your customer is buying and add them to the App's basket.
  • If you already had entered the SKU and UPC/EAN 13 digit codes in the ECR database, you can scan the product's barcode with our in-built scanner to identify and add the item to the shopping basket.
  • Once all the items are added in the basket, tap on Checkout and then select Cash or Card payment as per your customer's choice.
  • For cash transactions, our App automatically records the details once you confirm the transaction.
  • For card transactions, our App will communicate automatically with your card reader to take contactless, or Chip & Pin card payments.  
  • When it comes to printing charge-slips or  receipts:

    1) Print a charge slip using the attached printer on the Pax A920 device
    2)You can choose to email a digital receipt
    3)You can generate a QR code containing the receipt which can be scanned by your customer on their phone using the camera function
    4) Print a detailed sales receipt using the following optional printers- a Star Micronics mPOP integrated cash drawer and printer, SM-L200, mC-Print3, TSP143IIIBI or TSP143IIIU (iPAD/iPhone compatible) printer. You will need to purchase your selected printer directly from an authorised reseller, check our website for more details.  
How do I process delayed check-outs?
  • This function is useful for Restaurants and Cafes, for example,  where customers may give an order for food and drinks initially and a bill/check is presented later forpayments.
  • If you don't wish to checkout the customer  basket immediately, you can then save the basket with selected items, under a basket name (for example with the customer's name or a table number in a  restaurant) and choose to checkout later. To access this function, you will need to tap the shopping cart icon on the bottom left of the screen.
  • To retrieve a saved basket, you can tap the shopping cart icon from the Payments menu option and then select load basket. You will be presented with a list of saved baskets to choose from, and to proceed to check out.
How do I process tips/gratuity payments?
  • Certain merchants especially in the Restaurants and Cafe verticals may require an additional functionality for tips/gratuity payments (the terms tips and gratuities are being used interchangeably here).CardAlpha's ePOS treats tips and gratuities  as optional or discretionary service charges, paid voluntarily by customers. As such they are treated as outside the scope of  VAT by the ePOS (as per UK VAT notice 700, Section 8.14).
  • To set-up tip/gratuities on the ECR, you will need to create the the tip/gratuity as an item type in a manner, similar to how basket discounts are set-up (but of course the tips/gratuity will work in an opposite manner to basket level discounts). In the description field, you can enter any name for the tip, for example "Tip 10%". You can leave the SKU, EAN/UPC and category fields blank. Under the Unit type field choose Tip/Gratuity % as an option and enter the numerical value of the discount. To enter 10% tip, just enter the number 10. And save the entry.
  • The tip/gratuity % will now be available in the ECR as a product type, with its description field and can be selected alongside any normal products/service to create the order basket.
How do I add products to the CardAlpha app?
  • Open our CardAlpha app, and select the ECR from the bottom menu.
  • Click on the "+" button, and add product descriptions with images, prices, VAT, and inventory details. To upload many items with one click, go to Help and request for batch upload.
  • While creating your ECR, please note the relative importance of SKU and UPC/EAN (13 digit) codes. SKU (Stock Keeping Unit) is an identifier for each unique product, generated by a retail business for their own internal use. If you want, you can create and add it in our App for a better inventory management.
  • UPC or EAN is a 13 digit standardised universal code utilised within Europe to identify an individual product unit. You have the option to specify EAN/UPC codes, which you can obtain from your Supplier and add it to the product database. During sales check-out you can scan the barcode with our in-built barcode application to identify the item and add it to the shopping basket.
How do I issue refunds?
  • Open our CardAlpha app, and select the Payments from the bottom menu.
  • Click on the Transactions in the top right corner.
  • Pull out the specific transaction details (for the transaction to be refunded) by using the amount, date, or a receipt number.
  • Once the transaction has been located, the relevant basket items with their quantities will be available on the screen.
  • You can issue a full or a partial refunds by using the “-“ (minus) to decrease the quantities of the items.
  • If the original item was paid for in cash, the App will instruct you to refund the cash amount and provide you with an option to generate a receipt.
  • If the item was originally paid for by a card, the ePOS app will communicate directly with the card terminal to process refunds. A supervisor password is required on the card terminal for processing refunds. Your welcome letter will contain details of the supervisor login and password.  
  • Please note if the original transaction contained a basket level discount, the App will first prompt you to refund the entire basket, after which, the basket will be re-presented with original quantities, discounts etc. Now you can amend it as required based on the new shopping basket details and proceed to a new checkout.
Which pricing sub-elements determine the Gross Amount to be charged for a SKU?

Retail price per unit (ppu) : This is the original list price of the SKU item before any VAT or discounts.

Item level discount % or ID%: This is a percentage discount applicable to the retail price of an item.

Basket level discount % or BD%: It is the percentage discount applied to all items within a shopping basket. If an item discount is already available, the BD% will be applied together with the  ID% to determine the final applicable discount.

Net price: It is the Retail price per unit (ppu) less any applicable discounts, multiplied by Quantity.

VAT %: This is the applicable VAT %, with the VAT % amount based on what has been supplied by the user while setting up the item on the catalogue.

Gross price: This is the Net price plus applicable VAT. This is the transaction price which is charged to the Cardholder.

How do transactions get rounded up or down?

We round off any list price, discounts applied and VAT amounts to the nearest penny. If the fraction of the penny is 0.5 or more, we round up to the next whole penny. If the fraction of the penny is below 0.5, we round below. With this rule, if any amount is 45.666, we will treat the rounded-off amount as 45.67. If on the other hand, the amount is 45.454, we will treat the rounded-off amount as 45.45.

How do I reach you or Worldpay if I need support or have any issues related to my account

For any questions or issues relating to the Point of Sale solution (the ePOS app) or the card reader you  can contact us using the Chat option on the ePOS app. You can also email us at admin@cardalpha.com.

For any service issues related to card payments, settlements, refunds, fee applied on card payments, chargebacks and any other queries related to your Worldpay merchant card processing account, you will need to contact Worldpay directly at +44 345 761 6263 or use the Worldpay Dashboard portal and chat with the Helpdesk.

about CardAlpha

CardAlpha is a financial technology company based in London. CardAlpha's ePOS App converts a small business owner's tablet or smartphone device into a powerful electronic cash register featuring a product catalogue with item description, prices, discounts, inventory tracking and digital receipts.

The App is integrated with a card reader and tracks cash sales and processes card transactions directly from the cash register, making it a powerful accessory for day - to - day sales management.