Credit card or Bill acceptors

[Earl Weiss]

Which would you upgrade to first. Credit card or bill acceptors. Currently quarters only.

 

[Kirb]

Earl,
I have both but I would start with bills first. I get more CC use everyday but my customers started using bills immediately.

 

[JMMUSTANG]

I also have both in my bays and I have to agree that the bill acceptors get used more often. But your car wash location might also dictate which to have for safety.
With the bill acceptors you can add Bonus Time and not have to worry about getting charge by the credit card companies for giving your customers a discount.
That said looking at my bank account every morning and seeing a deposit automatically deposited no matter how small or large in nice.
But if you could I would think that in Chicago you would do very well having both.

 

[Earl Weiss]

I also have both in my bays and I have to agree that the bill acceptors get used more often. But your car wash location might also dictate which to have for safety.
With the bill acceptors you can add Bonus Time and not have to worry about getting charge by the credit card companies for giving your customers a discount.
That said looking at my bank account every morning and seeing a deposit automatically deposited no matter how small or large in nice.
But if you could I would think that in Chicago you would do very well having both.

Well, it's a cost issue. Upgrading for Bills is $1000.00 per bay. There is a system I am checking out that uses wireless technology and I think is $250.00 per bay for credit cards but last I check only did count up. If my bays currently average $750.00 / month and dollars increases sales by 11% it's a year payback.

I wonder if the sales will bump up that much. I also have an issue with regard to security since the D&S faceplate uses the Pin style lock. I would have to figure out some sort of layer system.

 

[captain cw]

depends on the site, but I would probably go with bills, but I'm a big fan of both.

 

[Bubbles Galore]

Your customer base should dictate your decision. Mine is mostly younger apartment dwellers. Credit cards were a natural fit. The bill acceptor is good too...I guess its a toss up

 

[JMMUSTANG]

Well, it's a cost issue. Upgrading for Bills is $1000.00 per bay. There is a system I am checking out that uses wireless technology and I think is $250.00 per bay for credit cards but last I check only did count up. If my bays currently average $750.00 / month and dollars increases sales by 11% it's a year payback.

I wonder if the sales will bump up that much. I also have an issue with regard to security since the D&S faceplate uses the Pin style lock. I would have to figure out some sort of layer system.

I installed 2 bill acceptor boxes in 2 bays from Jim at Etawah several years ago for around $650 per box and they have worked out great.
I installed them up against my old D & S small coin boxes. I secured and wired both the coin and bill boxes together.
There was 2 reasons I wanted to have a seperate box for the bills and the coins. If someone tried to break into the bill box hopefully they wouldn't mess up the coin box and at least my bay would still be up and running with coin use only. Fortunately that has never happened.
The second reason is I believe that having a seperate box for the bills makes it stand out more thereby more people will use it. It does get a lot of use and I don't even have bonus time on these 2 boxes.

 

[MEP001]

There is a system I am checking out that uses wireless technology and I think is $250.00 per bay for credit cards but last I check only did count up.

I'd really like to know about that system. I've wanted to add CC acceptance to some vacs, but nothing I've seen would be cost-effective between the initial hardware and the fees.

Are you against count-up? I wouldn't do it any other way.

 

[Earl Weiss]

I installed 2 bill acceptor boxes in 2 bays from Jim at Etawah several years ago for around $650 per box and they have worked out great.
I installed them up against my old D & S small coin boxes. I secured and wired both the coin and bill boxes together.
There was 2 reasons I wanted to have a seperate box for the bills and the coins. If someone tried to break into the bill box hopefully they wouldn't mess up the coin box and at least my bay would still be up and running with coin use only. Fortunately that has never happened.
The second reason is I believe that having a seperate box for the bills makes it stand out more thereby more people will use it. It does get a lot of use and I don't even have bonus time on these 2 boxes.

Thats a great idea. I'll have to check into that. Sperate Box for the Bill acceptor. Since my Bay meters are back to back, I can mount it next to the Regular meter box back to back with the other bill box thru the wall atachment between the two (Actualy the Masonry that surrounds it ) and possibly just drill straighr thru each box to run the wires. The bill boxes would also be a little closer to the door which would also mean a little less spray.

 

[Earl Weiss]

Are you against count-up? I wouldn't do it any other way.

To the contrary, I am not aginst count up. In fact i am for it, except if it costs me $1500-$2000 a bay versus $250.00 a bay.

 

[Earl Weiss]

Just sent E V an e-mail asking about options and costs for a seperate box and acceptor. Thoughts please on the best acceptors for in Bay use.

 

[Kirb]

Earl,
I have MARS and they work great. It takes bills in all four directions and handles the wet very well.

 

[Kirb]

MEP,
For your vacs you can use the Eport CC acceptance. It is $9.95 per month and 5% transaction fee with no processing fee.

 

[rzeavy]

If you only dispense/accept quarters, I would start by dispensing/accepting dollar coins as well.
If I had to chose cc verses acceptors in the bays I would go with cc 'cause if a customer have cash he/she can change it at the changer, but if they don't carry cash (like some younger customers), they can use cc.

 

[JMMUSTANG]

Just sent E V an e-mail asking about options and costs for a seperate box and acceptor. Thoughts please on the best acceptors for in Bay use.

Earl I changed over to Coinco's new acceptor and it has been working great for nearly a year. No more break downs when the acceptor gets wet and no bill stringing problems at all.
I was just having to much problems with my Mars units not working when they got wet.

 

[Bubbles Galore]

If you only dispense/accept quarters, I would start by dispensing/accepting dollar coins as well.
If I had to chose cc verses acceptors in the bays I would go with cc 'cause if a customer have cash he/she can change it at the changer, but if they don't carry cash (like some younger customers), they can use cc.

^This was my motivation for going with in bay cc.

I just got the e-port system for my new vendor and was wondering if it is possible to make it work with vacs. Has anyone done this? I would love to try this out. So far the e-port has worked great with the vendor, any ideas as to how it would interface with a vac?

 

[Earl Weiss]

If you only dispense/accept quarters, I would start by dispensing/accepting dollar coins as well.
If I had to chose cc verses acceptors in the bays I would go with cc 'cause if a customer have cash he/she can change it at the changer, but if they don't carry cash (like some younger customers), they can use cc.

One of the last things I want is the addittional work of sorting quarters and other things like tokens or dollar coins.

 

[Bubbles Galore]

I have to respectfully disagree. Why wouldn't you want to take whatever form of payment your customer was willing to use? I don't mind sorting if I know my customers doesn't have to worry about whether or not they have the right type of coin.

 

[ted mcmeekin]

We used Etowah add on bill acceptors (less than $600/bay). The heavy box fit perfectly on side of our MK VII boxes. Ours are back to back so we bolted side of Etowah to MK VII box and also bolted through wall to box in next bay. We basically have the 4 boxes bolted together with concrete block wall between pairs. We then blocked up to match up.

Ted

 

[ScottV]

Just as JMMUSTANG has detailed, I also installed bill acceptor boxes last October in my 2 SS bays. Bought them from Ettowah Valley and I think they were about $670 per unit with the new Coinco acceptors.

They are a tough, rugged box that I bolted both to the wall and to my existing coinboxes. Luckily my original boxes werent recessed into the wall.

I have had many positive comments about the ease of use and customers enjoy not having to shlep over to the quarter changer and carry back $10 in coins to put in the slot. Adoption is getting better and better, and I would say that 50% of my revenue in the SS bays is via these bill acceptors.

What I dont have yet is wether they have increased the useage of the bays, or just become an alternative method of payment.

I chose these over the credit card acceptors because in NY state CC purchases are sales taxable, and not many of the companies out there have good software to charge the sales tax to the Self Serve purchases.

Good luck. If you work with Ettowah Valley, you will be pleased for sure!

ScottV