opening for credit card reader

[mjwalsh]

My fellow carwash operators,

I don't expect you to do all my research for me but I have a question for those of you who have considered having the opening on your coin boxes made so more than one brand of card reader will fit. We do not want to go with credit card readers for our dog wash or car wash at this time but would like to cut an opening in our stainless steel customer interface area to make a provision for them in the future. What size opening would you recommend to cover the variety of card readers that might be used in a semi wet environment? We would now fabricate a temporary cover until we go with credit card acceptance if ever. If we can come up with the right size opening it is a lot easier to cut now than to have to remove all the guts later in order to use our plasma cutter or metal flying grinder.

 

[Eric H]

It sounds like you are talking about the CC swipe that is used in a ACW that the customer pushes that card into and then pulls the card out. The only CC swipes I have seen for bays are the ones that thru bolt onto the faceplate with another hole behind for the wire. I have two different brands for swipes, both have the same bolt pattern but the wire hole is in a slightly different spot (only about a 1/4" difference).

I too like to think waayyyy ahead for my future needs but I think in this case doing nothing right now is the way to go. I would suggest pulling cat 5 wire if you are puling any cable out to the bay though.

 

[mjwalsh]

It sounds like you are talking about the CC swipe that is used in a ACW that the customer pushes that card into and then pulls the card out. The only CC swipes I have seen for bays are the ones that thru bolt onto the faceplate with another hole behind for the wire. I have two different brands for swipes, both have the same bolt pattern but the wire hole is in a slightly different spot (only about a 1/4" difference).

I too like to think waayyyy ahead for my future needs but I think in this case doing nothing right now is the way to go. I would suggest pulling cat 5 wire if you are puling any cable out to the bay though.

Thanks Eric,

It seems that you gave me the answer that I needed. It sounds like I will just have to drill a hole for the Cat 5 wire & to drill the bolt holes for the external reader which will supposedly rest on the front. I hope the reader doesn't stick out too far, it seems that it would have some advantage space wise by being flush. Every square inch will actually be important in the case of each of my 2 tiny dog wash stalls. It seems that most of the card readers are serial so I can probably get by with an even smaller wire & grommet than Cat 5. Nobody here local or otherwise is telling me what the credit card merchant needs from my PLC communication which explains why I am planning a delay on the credit card acceptance. The PLC will log any & all output to a spreadsheet so I would think that it should be able to just as easily drop the card & charge info over the VPN or other gateway.

 

[Ben's Car Wash]

Why not the WASH PAY system?

 

[ken-pro]

mjwalsh,

Sounds like you are trying to build your own credit card clearing system. I don't think you will find the information you are looking for. Credit card information is meant to be secure, and there are licensing fees and hoops to jump through to have a system certified. In fact, storing credit card information in a spreadsheet will definitely not meet the security requirements for credit card storage - A secure database is a minimum, but there are very specific guidelines to this as well.

If you are intending on building several hundred systems or more, it may be worthwhile to pursue building your own, otherwise I highly recommend buying a system already on the market.

 

[mjwalsh]

Ken-Pro,

I agree that the card info itself has to be secure from the time it is swiped onward similar to an ATM. The output to spreadsheet was just an example of the ability to output the time & total charge not the credit card personal info! Looking for all the options does not mean that I am trying to build my own credit card system!

For example, on any payment interface at some point the total charge has to be openly seen. Why would once the total charge is known it would be any different from any other Secure Gateway interaction to & from any other merchant provider? The encrytion would start from the card reader & would have to be compatible with an outside like you say Secure Gateway provider. All the hoops for the total charge calculation would be done by an equipment manufacturer such as yourself &/or the PLC system. All the other hoops & licensing & certification would be done by the Secure Gateway Provider.