Customer-Present

Static terminals are ideal for businesses managing payments at a till. HSBC Merchant Services offers an array of full-featured, economical, simple-to-use, and compact dial-up terminals to meet the needs of any business, in any industry.

Great for the hospitality market, our portable POS solutions eliminate the opportunity for fraud by delivering full payment control to cardholders.

Mobile POS terminals are ideal for taxis, delivery service or for processing off-site at remote locations such as local fairs. Process all of your electronic transactions quickly and efficiently with all-in-one mobile payment solutions from HSBC Merchant Services.

What's the difference between Portable and Mobile terminals?

Portable terminals are short-range terminals that operate by wireless connection to a base station, giving them a limited range wireless connection (much like the router and laptop in a domestic wireless internet network).

Mobile terminals, on the other hand, operate like a mobile phone, enabling them to take transactions anywhere in the UK (provided that reception is available).

Contactless transactions are the new way to pay for low value (£15* or less), everyday purchases in less than a second. Contactless technology is already being used in a number of countries across Europe, the USA and Asia; and over 9 million cards have been issued with Contactless functionality in the UK alone†.

Contactless is ideal for situations where merchants are taking a high volume of low value transactions - such as fast food outlets, supermarkets, convenience stores, pubs and bars, newsagents, etc. They are also ideal for remote or unattended payments situations, such as vending machines, road tolls or parking meters.

Transactions are typically made using a specially adapted debit or credit card. A tiny antenna is embedded in the card, which communicates with the payment terminal, and completes a payment in less than a second without the need for a PIN. The current UK limit for contactless transactions is £15*, with a normal chip and PIN transaction automatically initiated for higher values - and for occasional security checks.

Taking card transactions using innovative Contactless technology means that your customers can complete their transactions faster than ever before, allowing you to significantly reduce customer waiting times and offer a more convenient and more secure solution to notes and coins. Adapting to this technology would also align you and your customers with possible future electronic payment innovations.

In conjunction with HSBC Merchant Services, MasterCard, Visa and other leading UK banks, The UK Cards Association has launched a web site specifically for retailers in the UK that have an interest in Contactless card acceptance. The site provides a wealth of information, including: an introduction to Contactless cards, updates on the UK rollout, an insight into the potential business benefits, training materials and point-of-sale material designs to help promote Contactless.

Address is: http://www.contactless.info

Should you be interested in taking Contactless transactions, then please call HSBC Merchant Services on 0845 702 3344 to find our more about the various solutions we can make available to you.

* correct as at 08/10
† UK Cards Association 2010

We have developed an option to enable our merchants to connect an HSBC Merchant Services owned terminal to their electronic till. This will enable the till and the terminal to communicate with each other, removing the need for transactions to be inputted into both the till and terminal.

This will be what is known as a semi-integrated solution, meaning that the security aspects of the electronic transactions will be handled by the terminal as opposed to the till. This will enable merchants to reduce the time it takes to process a customer's transaction/s.

This technology also offers substantial improvements when used with a Contactless reader, as it allows merchants to make the most of the speed of contactless transactions i.e. without having to input the transaction into both the till and the terminal, which slows the whole transaction process down.

We can provide a processing service to businesses that accept cards using their own equipment or card acceptance system (including any part of it provided by a third party).

We can support either of the two main types of card acceptance systems, which are:

• electronic point of sale (EPOS) systems capable of accepting cards
• electronic card acceptance terminals which operate independently of your other point of sale equipment.

For either of these systems, we can provide you with:

• technical help and advice – our technical team has extensive experience including supporting well over 5,000 successful customer implementations
• system specifications – detailing our requirements and interfaces. Any equipment must be tested and approved by us prior to implementation.

When using your own equipment, you must follow all the procedures described in these instructions, unless we agree alternative and/or supplementary procedures and document these to you separately. You must make sure you keep us informed of all proposed changes to the terminals, configurations and transmission links. If you fail to do so we may be unable to collect your transactions and there will be a delay in crediting these transactions to your bank account.