Post date: Nov 28, 2013 6:20:2 PM
An enterprising seller of the homeless magazine, the Big Issue, becomes the first in the UK to accept card payments with his own chip and pin machine.
LONDON, ENGLAND, UK (NOVEMBER 28, 2013) (REUTERS) - A man who sells the homeless magazine 'The Big Issue" is the first in the UK to get his own chip and pin machine to allow customers to pay by card.
Formerly homeless himself, Simon Mott, came up with the idea to get his own smartphone, chip and pin machine and special app that processes the payments into his bank account after potential customers said they had no cash on them."Basically I was finding a lot of my customers were coming up to buy the magazine but they wouldn't have change on them or no cash at all or they would try and offer you higher denominations, like twenty pound notes that I wouldn't necessarily have change for, so I thought there has to be a way round this, there has to be. So I looked on the internet and I found a Swedish company called iZettle and they have a mobile chip and pin that connects by Bluetooth to a smartphone," Mott told Reuters Television on Thursday (November 28).
The 49-year-old became homeless in 2009 and turned to the charity the Big Issue to help him get back onto his feet.
He buys the magazine for 1.25 GBP and sells it for 2.50 GBP.
But with no cash points near his pitch outside the Science Museum in Kensington , west London, he had to find ways to sell magazine to those who had no cash.
He says the chip and pin machine has helped him boost sales by around 10 percent, bringing his total weekly sales to around 80-100 a week.
"It's boosted sales, some people like the idea of paying by card. It saves me carrying the cash, it is in my bank account within three days so it is very beneficial" he said.
And it is safer for Mott if he could move towards a totally cashless selling of his magazine.
"Obviously there has been situations in the past where Big Issue sellers have been mugged for their takings, I know that's a sad state of society that we live in at the moment, so obviously it is more secure and it is in your bank account within three days so it is much safer," he said.
The Big Issue says that one in three of its vendors are mugged. The organisation is now helping other vendors follow Mott's lead and is working on cheap and easy ways to get them set up withsmartphones and chip and pin machines.