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Paying for entrance to exhibitions.


Kris
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Paying for entrance to exhibitions.  

150 members have voted

  1. 1. When you go to an exhibition would you expect to be able to pay with a credit / debit card to enter.

  2. 2. If the ability to pay with a credit / debit card was available would you use it?



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52 minutes ago, Phil Parker said:

I can't be the only person who's been in the queue and watched as the person on the door appears to have never seen money before and needs to work out how it operates - every single time! :ireful:

Especially in Supermarkets, though it seems they can't find their cards either a lot of times.
In west Cornwall there are a lot of fast food outlets that are 'Cash Only'.

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One thing to conider about card readers - the £20 end ones need to be used with a so called smart phone which of course needs a phone signal which varies depending on the network & you still have data to pay for on the phone.

 

However, if you go for a card reader in the £80 end you do not need a phone - the reader comes with a "roaming" SIM that will use any of the networks depending on signal strenth. The transaction fees include the data & no monthy rentals.

 

Neuther require PCI compliance.

Edited by SamThomas
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We acquired a card machine before our last (2019) exhibition.  More people used it than we expected to do. It will be interesting to see how it shapes up this year. Despite being in a school we have to use an independent wifi signal as the school one is very secure ( - so we can't use it).

 

We will be taking cash as well as card payments .

 

Baz

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The truth of it is the pandemic has completely changed the way we pay for things . I was very reluctant to use the facility to just tap my credit card on the machine , but now do it all the time .  I think its the way we are going . Many people simply dont carry cash these days 

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I thought this was a thread on how to get into an exhibition without paying.    Back in Horticultural Hall days, one collected the coloured cards used to enter the other hall and found out which colour was in use.  Telford was the corridor leading to the disabled toilets.  Ally Pally is a sod now they steward the exhibitors' entrance, but on a sunny day the South door may be open .....

Bill

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Yesterday’s Facebook outage yesterday is perhaps a good reason to still be able to take cash payments, if it can happen to them it can happen to anyone.


I’ve always taken at least the entry fee in cash to shows, due to the possibility of digital connection problems, but will often choose digital payment if the facility is there.

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One problem is some halls are steel framed and steel clad, you are effectively in a Faraday cage. At Spalding some traders have to walk to a fire door to get a signal for their card readers..

 

Here in deepest Norfolk,, there are often black holes where there are no signals , like at my MRC on some networks..

 

Another question how much is the data charge for having a phone on all day at the door? I don't know because my PAYG phone only makes phone calls,, nothing else.

 

As for getting in free, I get up at stupid o'clock for work, so am awake early and go to shows early,, It's not been unknown for me to be helping in layouts when they arrive, and then walk to the ticket desk from the inside to pay to a surprised person  ..

 

I generally pay cash at the door and to traders by cash, though I have no objection to cards.. 

Cash though has the advantage of being invisible to the Authorities  .....

 

SWMBO...

 

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1 hour ago, TheQ said:

Another question how much is the data charge for having a phone on all day at the door? I don't know because my PAYG phone only makes phone calls,, nothing else.

Data cost would be negligible. Figures normally quoted are 10kb or less per transaction. As you would struggle to find a data package with less than 1gb now you are talking about 1 hundred thousand transactions before you would get charged for extra data on top of the package cost. 

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1 hour ago, TheQ said:

Cash though has the advantage of being invisible to the Authorities  .....

 

SWMBO...

 

Do you just pay in coins?

 

What about the tracking chip in the plastic notes..........?:wink_mini:

:jester:

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5 hours ago, Mike Bellamy said:

Another problem was at Sparsholt Agricultural College (Winchester) where we lost the signal as the college switched off all the IT equipment for maintenance (which included the phone equipment) on the Saturday because no students were there, not realising that there was an exhibition on.

 

Yes, I remember problems there at NG South one year.

 

10 hours ago, DavidB-AU said:

There's another important option to consider - paying online before the event. This avoids queues on the day and you should be to just walk up to the door and show some proof of payment, e.g. a QR code on your phone which the door staff can scan with their phone to prove it's a genuine and hasn't already been used. There are numerous services where you can do this very easily. Taking Eventbrite as one of many examples example, you can either build the handling fee into the entry price or pass it on to the buyer.

 

I already go to a few other things that use Eventbrite (usually big one off or infrequent events so quite similar to a model railway exhibition). I think this could be quite a good option as the tickets can either be printed or used in the app, and you don’t even necessarily have to scan them at the show (I know they should be scanned to check that they’re genuine but not all events seem to do this).

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17 hours ago, Jonboy said:


 

I got cash out at the weekend and had to try 4 cash points before finding one with cash available….

Which only goes to show that cash is more popular than the banks and media would have us believe.

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17 minutes ago, Andy Hayter said:

Which only goes to show that cash is more popular than the banks and media would have us believe.

 

Or that the people who should fill them up, can't do their jobs. After all, it's not like shelves or fuel tanks are empty...

 

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One of my colleagues participated in the Payments Council and the use of cash has been declining for at least the last 30 years.  From around 80% of transactions in 1990 to less than 25% last year - acceleration of the decline mostly pre-dates Covid.

 

Clearly cash is still important but I'd argue that being able to take card (particularly contactless) payments is significantly more important!

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On 05/10/2021 at 15:00, Revolution Mike said:

One of my colleagues participated in the Payments Council and the use of cash has been declining for at least the last 30 years.  From around 80% of transactions in 1990 to less than 25% last year - acceleration of the decline mostly pre-dates Covid.

 

 

Cash was just 17% of total for 2020 according to official figures, having dropped 35% from 2019's total.

 

SUMMARY-UK-Payment-Markets-2021-FINAL.pdf

Edited by melmerby
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22 hours ago, Jonboy said:

 

 

I got cash out at the weekend and had to try 4 cash points before finding one with cash available….

 

It probably depends on the location. I live in a city and the cash machines are empty by about mid day on a Saturday as people are on nights out, hen/stag dos, mini breaks, shopping, going to the match, etc. Then normally filled on Monday. If you want cash on a Sunday you will struggle. Even the cash machines that charge get emptied.

 

The £40 limit or whatever it is on your "tap and go" wouldn't even buy a round if you have a group of over ten people. So many still prefer cash, even the youngsters.

 

Very few people can get to banks when they are open. So, yes. People still use cash machines.

 

 

Jason

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6 minutes ago, Steamport Southport said:

The £40 limit or whatever it is on your "tap and go" wouldn't even buy a round if you have a group of over ten people

 

It's going up to £100 from 15th October to allow Londoners to buy a round.

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21 hours ago, Legend said:

The truth of it is the pandemic has completely changed the way we pay for things . I was very reluctant to use the facility to just tap my credit card on the machine , but now do it all the time .  I think its the way we are going . Many people simply dont carry cash these days 

 

Whilst I prefer paying by card or phone I still carry cash, in fact I almost feel naked (horrible thought :scared:) if I leave the house without at least £50 in my wallet.  (Currently £65)  When going to a show I'll normally have at least a ton on me, this after missing out on a couple of purchases in the past.

Edited by grandadbob
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I still use cash a lot, as well as contactless, so each evening when I get home,

I empty my pockets and separate out the loose change.

I keep the £1 and £2 pound coins for day to day spending, everything else

goes through a coin sorting machine (present from the kids, Science Museum)

The small change gets bagged, and eventually used at the supermarket, but

the 50p and 20p coins get put aside for exhibitions, it means I can spend more

without the authorities knowing!

Sometimes I go with £200 in change to a show, which can be interesting at times,

one year at RailEx, I paid for entry in coins, an hour later they had run out of show

guides, came looking for me and bought £50 of change off me, result!

Another time, I was wanted an Ixion Fowler, and he was more than happy to take 

the asking price in coins (£140, I think) because he owed money to another trader,

and wanted to wind him up!

Basically, I don't mind how I pay for entry, food and drink, or anything else from a 

stand, so long as I'm given a choice.

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Personally "cash only" means I go elsewhere to make my purchase. Admittedly if I've travelled to something like a show then I might try and find some cash from somewhere, but the only cash I've used in since March 2020 is the £1 coin required to get a trolley at the supermarket. I think there's about £20 in cash in my wallet which predates lockdown.

 

So in summary, if you want my money then let me pay by card.

 

Exhibitions ought to offer the ability to buy a ticket in advance over the internet, too...

Edited by Zomboid
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I've been using contactless a lot throughout Covid but have pretty much drifted back to cash for small transactions now. It's good to have alternative options but I'm a firm believer in cash being the only one you can expect to be available (for the sort of prices we're talking about here).

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I only use my card for online purchases (not that many) and withdrawing as much cash as I can from the hole in the wall leaving a balance of enough to cover utility bills.

I give a lot of money to my two children.
At the last election one party had in mind a 'Lifetime Gift Tax' where your children can be taxed on money given to them in their lifetime and this could only be tracked/imposed if we are a cashless society hence they would never get my vote.
I have never had a problem using cash... never been refused, even bought a new car.

 

 

 

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Our club can't get to talk to anyone in the bank HSBC as our account is a business one apparently and the branch in Plymouth only deals with personal accounts and none of the other banks want to take us on so we will be continuing with cash only for the forseeable future, a right pain, but unless we're turning over 10s of thousands a year they don't seem to be interested.

 

 

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