Pos Credit Card Readers
In today's economy, consumer confidence is clearly running low. People are less likely to shop and, when they do, many seem only ready to spend if they have cash in their wallet. For this reason, businesses must make it easier, faster and less complicated for consumers to complete their purchases.
Getting access to cash used to mean standing in line at the bank and receiving notes and coins from the teller. Using a credit card meant watching the cashier snap the card into a holder of sorts, cover it with a credit slip, and then drag a heavy slider back and forth over top to imprint the card information onto the slip with the help of carbon paper. These means of financial transaction are no longer time efficient or secure. Today, we live life at the end of a magnetic stripe.
POS (point of sale) credit card readers are a mainstay of virtually every retail business and bank. These machines basically read the magnetic stripe on the back of a credit card by swiping or dragging the card through the reader slot. Magnetic readers can handle any type of card with a stripe on the back – including a debit card, a driver's license, an identification card and more. Some credit card readers are integrated into a larger machine (e.g., an automated teller machine or ATM) whereas others are almost as small as the cards themselves and can be adapted to any business set-up from a restaurant or store to the booth at a commercial fair or trade show.
A California company by the name of Kanecal offers small credit card readers such as the MiniMag Intelligent Swipe Reader or the Universal Magnetic Swipe Reader, depending on what types of cards will need to be read. These POS credit card readers are so small that they can be attached with Velcro to a keyboard or handheld while plugged into a computer's USB port.
The beauty of swiping a card means that, at times, no staff need even be present to generate or complete a sale. Such is the case with a vending machine credit card reader. The CommStar EasyReader System is just one example. This unit, when mounted into a vending machine or other freestanding kiosk, will read all major credit cards or the vendor's own type of card with no sales clerk present. The reader handles the banking system communication. This represents the possibility for a business model with very little overhead.
Department store POS systems have, as a rule, tended to have a cash register with a connected credit card reader. Now, there are cash registers that come equipped with a credit card reader built right in which then sends the information about the purchase to a simplified customer keypad (for confirmation and PIN entry). Ultimately, the more often a business can give its clientele the option to swipe a magnetic stripe, the more likely they will make a needed sale.