6 ms·
Another consideration is PoS cost. In Denmark, I know that credit card PoS's are super expensive to rent. And you need to rent them, because if you buy them -
by Svip 7y ago
Another consideration is PoS cost. In Denmark, I know that credit card PoS's are super expensive to rent. And you need to rent them, because if you buy them - which is even more expensive - you'll have to replace them every year. So you need a certain amount of turnover to have a credit card PoS in Denmark.
The card PoS's come in two forms; one that only takes the Danish Dankort (which is the cheaper) and one that also accepts foreign cards.
Which is why merchants in Denmark - at least smaller ones - are still weary about upgrading to the fancy PoS, and therefore need to accept cash some times. Sure, there are alternatives to that, like MobilePay. But usually your problem will be with tourists, who don't have access to that, nor access to a Danish card, and can only pay cash. (Another good reason why governments won't abandon cash; they'd lose a lot of tourists too.)
I don't know whether PoS's are cheaper in Sweden than in Denmark, but generally speaking, Danes and Swedes have about the same level of trust in government, yet there are far more cash transactions in Denmark compared to Sweden.
- jbergens 7y agoThere are newer solutions like iZettle for cards that costs less. In Sweden we also have Swish, payment by smartphone without cards, but that is also a bit harder for older people.
- Svip 7y agoI've encountered one merchant in Denmark using iZettle. He has since replaced it with the regular PoS. I can only imagine that is more expensive for him, but I wonder why he abandoned iZettle? Maybe it doesn't work that well? I am honestly wondering why I don't see more usage of iZettle. It could just be a Danish thing. And yes, there is Swish/MobilePay, but that only really works if you're local. A tourist - even one from a neighbouring country - will not have access to that.
- jks 7y agoWe have MobilePay in Finland, but I don't know if it interoperates with the Danish system. Denmark is part of the Single Euro Payments Area, so I would expect transfers to be possible. There were iZettles in many Helsinki cafés a few years ago, but it seems to me that most of them have been replaced by normal PoS terminals.
- LeonidasXIV 7y agoFinnish MobilePay, despite being owned by the same bank, is not interoperable with Danish MobilePay. Its stupid that every Nordic country is its own mobile-payment island.
- vnorilo 7y agoAt least here in Finland, I associate iZettle with artisans, coffee stands, small farmers and ad hoc store fronts. Cheap and cheerful. Not that I mind it as a customer, but could be an image thing.
- simongray 7y agoSame association in Denmark.
- Gwypaas 7y agoYep, same in Sweden. Super easy to setup and you get a complete POS system with built in cash register and emailing of receipts just having a tablet and the card reader. Costs per transaction are higher but for really small scale the ease of use wins.
- henriks 7y agoLike another poster said -- cost per transaction is higher. iZettle charges around a magnitude higher transaction fees compared to the regular PoS, so for a non-trivial amount of transactions it becomes more expensive regardless of the lack of monthly fees.
- LeonidasXIV 7y agoWhat? I encounter them pretty often in Copenhagen. Usually lower throughput places though, probably because the connectivity and the tablet app is a bit clunky but I would guess it is way easier to get started with this.
- alfyboy 7y agoOne of the reasons the expensive PoS is popular, at least in the shops where they have a high amount of customers is that the expensive PoS usually offer technical support with a SLA. The amount a medium - large shop saves on always having a payment terminal ready is more than what it might cost to rent one. Source: Used to work as a technician fixing payment terminals.
- LeonidasXIV 7y agoThis does not mirror my experience at all, it is very rare not to be able to pay with card at all, even at shawarma/kebab/hotdog stands. The only places that are cash-only are drug dealers and some other places in Christiania and cheap hairdressers who opt in to not report their earnings to SKAT all that accurately. Also, the Denmark-only Dankort is dying and its demise is happening fast: they are coupled as Dankort/Visa cards and the POS might decide to prefer Dankort but accepts Visa just as well. Neither Google Pay nor Fitbit Pay support Dankort and I have not seen transactions fail that would work with my Dankort. Also, cash transactions are pretty rare too. Even older people use contactless, I have never seen cashiers have to pick coins from someone's hand as is customary with older people in Germany. Sometimes days pass without me seeing anyone pay with cash. In my experience the main source of cash transactions are German tourists.