I know of a Wing which has completly stopped taking any cheques or cash for camps and events.
Total chaos! Many parents dont do online banking… so with a wexo screaming like a possessed banshee that everything must be paid by electronic transfer, some parents have no choice but to go into a bank. Often in the next town now.
I would have several cadets completly disadvantaged by this.
Outrageous, empire building and out of order policy setting.
Carry notes (in addition to Mastercard/Visa Cards). Dislike Coins. Also unsure of donating £10 minimum to charity :’)
@DontCallMeSir What’s wrong with having a Post Office account?
One of my cousins got himself into a financial pickle in the early 00s and couldn’t get a bank account for years after. He got one eventually but was only allowed to use cash, no cheques, overdraft or credit cards.
Since the crash in the 00s, this situation has increased. We had families where parents got made redundant and income went to almost zero. As a result they paid for things with cash to keep control.
Camp payments aside, you can get inexpensive (£29) contactless/chip and pin card readers that can be used to make payments to a paypal account. You lose 1.75% of the money but £4.91 of a potential £5 donation is better than £0 of a potential £5 donation.
Understood, but I’m not convinced it is that effective by the number of just giving pages per squadron …
There is nothing wrong with having a post office account, my problem is with the scrotes who do not work…unless they are being paid to sit in their groups of 2 and 3 or more to watch people walk past every day.
All this while relevant to a degree gets us away from the original post, ie, Has anyone taken a card reader/payment collection device to a bag pack or similar and if so how many people used it ?.
A
the RIAT camp uses an iZettle card reader
given the cost of the clothing merchandise (hoodies and tops £15-30+) that is outside the usual scope of “pocket money for annual camp” and so card reader was introduced.
It was also used as a cash point, so persons (Cadets and Staff) could spend money at the canteen/bar
doesn’t answer the question on an example for donations but is an example within the organisation
While adults can do what they like with their money, I would say it is better to advise cadets and therefore their parents of the cost of things at RIAT as mentioned and maybe the parents purchase them in advance for collection. Then advise parents of how much money their children should bring, given air show and similar event vendors play on the fact people are stuck with their over-priced food and tat. I would not have given our kids cards to pay for things, they would get cash and manage on that. Which they did and always came back with money, which they kept and knew they could.
Good for you?
Someone better versed than I might be able to correct me but I believe there is a RIAT Air cadet online store via Facebook. Parents will be able to see cost of things on that.
Otherwise, people parent in different ways, is it really your place to tell other parents whether or not little Jonny is allowed a debit card?
So it requires people to use SM to buy something, while many will and do, as has been noted on here a number of parents don’t use SM and are not enthused enough to let their children. I’m not telling people how to parent, that’s for them to navigate.
But I think like we do with camps and things like DofE, where we have a spare time, we advise an amount to take, based on many years experience. As I said air shows fall into the class of events and places where, vendors play on the fact they have a largely captive audience and effectively mug people,.
All I was suggesting is put a list of clothing and tat available on the JIs and if parents are so inclined, pay for it in advance and cadets collect while there or they know how much things are and give their children sufficient to pay for it.
Resurrecting to ask:
Any recommendations on current providers for one of these systems - there appear to be various available? Main theme anti seems to have issue with the charge per transaction - so something where that is minimised? Plan to recommend use for activity/camp payments only currently.
If it’s just for camp payments, use GovPay. Small charge per transaction (not worth worrying about) and easy one click refunds.
Pay by a link in advance. Super easy.
I think they’re all pretty much of a muchness to be honest… I’ve been using Sum-up. The fees are less than having an old-style merchant account.
I have to agree, and the ability to refund straight back to the payee, in the event of cancellation / no show etc, is really useful. Plus one payment into the bank account rather than loads of little cheques/payments etc.