Mobile Transaction Review

PayNuts review: high-end EFTPOS with no or low fees (mobiletransaction.org)

The below content was not written by us. It was written by Mobile Transaction.

What is PayNuts?

Launched in February 2023, PayNuts offers modern, touchscreen EFTPOS machines and online payments for small and medium businesses in Australia. The company used to operate as More Payments (now discontinued), but was rebranded and replaced with PayNuts.

The company handles card payment processing and next-day payouts to your business bank account (PayNuts doesn’t offer its own business account). The range of accepted payment schemes is quite good considering it’s a new solution on the market.

As a merchant service provider, PayNuts aims to be the antidote to bureaucratic EFTPOS providers requiring lock-in and lengthy application processes. Instead, users get an easy application process to rent the latest EFTPOS machines on a no- or low-cost plan with very affordable rates for a small business.

EFTPOS machines

So far, PayNuts mainly offers one EFTPOS machine: the portable Verifone T650p model. Soon, an extra two models will be offered: the portable PAX A920 and mobile PAX A77 smart POS terminals.

The Verifone T650p terminal available now is a high-end touchscreen EFTPOS terminal for use at a point of sale (POS), portably around premises or on the go. It connects to the internet via WiFi, Bluetooth (within reach of a router) or your local mobile network (4G, GPS) through a complimentary SIM card with unlimited data.

Designed for versatility and accessibility, the Android-based terminal has a large, crisp-clear, 5.5” colour touchscreen interface where you enter a transaction amount before giving it to the payer for a contactless, swipe or chip card payment. It also has a scanner for barcodes and QR codes.

The device is very user-friendly, with the capacity to accept tips, send or print receipts, and display sales or settlement totals. More complex POS features require an integration with a full-fledged POS system.

All the terminals integrate with over 600 different POS and business software systems for retail, hospitality, hotels and most other merchant sectors. This makes PayNuts quite adaptable and ready for when your business grows in complexity.

Pricing

PayNuts tries to keep EFTPOS fees and subscriptions as simple as possible. Regardless of the chosen package, there are no fees for setting up and no contractual commitment. You can cancel any time without a termination charge.

Settlement of funds the following business day is free. Same-day deposits are available for an additional fee disclosed when asking about it.

Apart from that, there’s a choice between two EFTPOS plans with different charges: Pay Nothing EFTPOS or Low Fee EFTPOS. Both include a card machine with a built-in SIM card with free, unlimited data.

On the Pay Nothing plan, transaction charges are all passed on to customers through a variable surcharge. If your monthly sales volume per card machine is below $10,000, you pay $29 (incl. GST) that month for card machine rental. When sales exceed $10k during a month, there is no cost that month.

No additional charges apply on the Pay Nothing plan – including for chargebacks, American Express, receipt paper rolls, remote payments or call-out repairs. You truly pay nothing, except for the monthly cost below the minimum $10k sales volume.

The Low Fee plan, in contrast, always charges $29 (incl. GST) per month for terminal rental, regardless of sales volume processed.

What you get instead are fully tailored, competitive (“low fee”) charges based on your type of business and revenue. These could span between 0.8%–1.5% for a small business, depending on the type of card. Amex costs more to process, as do other international, premium credit cards. Paying for transactions yourself means you entirely avoid awkward situations with customers who don’t want to pay a surcharge.

Then there are costs for chargebacks, receipt rolls and other one-off or ongoing things applicable to your usage. These are all outlined in writing during onboarding so there are no surprises down the line.

Alternatively, you can use PayNuts as a short-term rental solution through the Event EFTPOS package. Costs for that are also tailored to your situation.

Merchant portal

All users benefit from access to a browser-based PayNuts Merchant Portal, as well as an app version of it. This is your main hub for viewing transactions, payouts, chargebacks and fees.

On the dashboard (home screen), daily, weekly and monthly sales, fees, deposits and more key figures are illustrated in graphs for a quick overview. You can generate and export detailed reports for transactions, funding deposits and more from sub-sections of the portal.

As of yet, you can’t integrate the system with accounting software, but exporting the sales data allows you to feed it into your bookkeeping system of choice.

Online payments

PayNuts doesn’t just offer EFTPOS packages, the company offers online payments too. You can get:

• Hosted online payment gateway (checkout) for your website – free
• Payment links to send via email or SMS – $5 per month
• Virtual terminal for merchant-entered, remote transactions – free

The online transaction fees are based on your business and whether they’re passed on to the customer’s bill. Funds are received the following working day, which is much faster than e.g. Stripe.

PayNuts accepts a wide selection on payment methods online, including:

• Cards: eftpos, Visa, Mastercard, Amex, UnionPay
• Digital wallets: Apple Pay, Google Pay, Alipay, WeChat Pay
• Buy now, pay later: Afterpay, ZipPay

The payment gateway integrates out-of-box (via a plugin) with online stores built in WordPress, WooCommerce, OpenCart, Adobe Commerce (previously Magento) or PrestaShop. It’s possible to integrate with other website platforms or mobile apps, but you may need a developer to program it with the given APIs.

Those who just need a way to accept cards over the phone or via mail order can just use the virtual terminal. This is a web page where merchants can manually enter the card details of the customer and complete the transaction remotely.

Payment links are an easy way to request payments remotely. After clicking the link, the customer will see your branded checkout page with the amount to pay, including the surcharge if your business opts for this. Both the merchant and customer receive a confirmation following each successful payment.

Only the payment links have a monthly fee of $5 which is cancellable any time; the other tools incur no monthly charge.

Customer support and reviews

All PayNuts merchants can access 24/7 customer support via email, telephone and messaging chat, which is more accessible than competing players in Australia. There is also an online help section for common questions, but no substantial step-by-step guides.

Because it’s a brand new solution, there are virtually no impartial user reviews for PayNuts specifically. You can only find More Payments (previous branding) reviews with generally high ratings citing excellent customer service and a smooth application process.

Getting started

To sign up, you complete a short online form with details about yourself, the business and products you’re interested in. This gets sent to the onboarding team who will phone you with a tailored quote and/or email a digital application that takes a few minutes to complete online.

You do have to submit digital copies of a few required documents, including:

• Passport or driver’s licence
• Proof of bank account
• Proof of trading address

A bank account at any Australian bank, matching the name of your business, is a strict requirement.

We know from our own communications with PayNuts that it’s a friendly team that prioritises efficient onboarding instead of bureaucratic, paper-based applications still seen in the industry. This is evident in its speed of account approval, which is less than 24 hours for 80% of applicants.

After account approval, it usually takes 5-7 business days to receive the new EFTPOS machine by post. So overall, you can get up and running in just over a week (but it can take 2 weeks).

Our verdict

Compared with other EFTPOS solutions in Australia, PayNuts shows pretty good potential. It offers a plan for those who want to avoid any charges and competitive pricing for those who’d rather spare their customers from an extra fee (surcharge).

To avoid monthly fees on the No Fee plan, however, a minimum turnover per terminal is required, so it might not suit low-volume businesses. Still, the competitive EFTPOS rental cost, simplified fees and 24/7 support are valued aspects of this newly launched solution.

The quality of the EFTPOS machine is ace, in fact better than the vast majority of merchant service providers that tend to offer older models. On top of this, you won’t struggle to find a POS system that integrates with it.

Although great that online payment payments are available, there’s still no accounting integration, and the online resources could do with some detailed how-to guides. The fully digitised onboarding process, attention to merchants and lack of bureaucracy are positive signs that PayNuts prioritises your needs, though.