AIB card machine review: Ireland’s biggest payment provider, but is it good?

What does AIB Merchant Services offer?

Allied Irish Bank Merchant Services (AIBMS) is the largest provider of payment acceptance in Ireland, with card payment solutions to businesses of all sizes.

AIB Merchant Services is actually a joint venture between AIB and First Data Corporation, a global acquirer processing payments and providing merchant accounts. Because First Data created the Clover brand of card terminals, AIBMS tends to recommend these products for in-person payments, but other card terminals are available too from the good brands PAX and Ingenico.

Apart from card machines, AIBMS offers an online payment gateway for ecommerce, virtual terminal for over-the-phone payments and online merchant portal for sales reports. This isn’t any different from most other payment companies.

To sign up, businesses are required to have a merchant account with First Data and sign one or more long-term contracts. Details about this are provided at the phone-in stage where you negotiate fees and requirements. Like other traditional banks, costs are not communicated until you’ve given details about your business.

You’ll need a business bank account to receive payouts – AIB will probably encourage you to sign up for theirs if you haven’t got one already. As a downside, we’ve seen that AIBMS can have payout times as slow as a week, but faster processing is also possible.

Our opinion: good product, problematic service

An AIB card terminal comes with many fees and (most likely) years of contract lock-in. Despite this, it remains one of Ireland’s leading merchant card services for SMEs and large businesses alike.

“I haven’t run into issues with most of AIBMS’s card machines, but am concerned about the many negative reviews about the lack of service, surprise fees and withheld payments.”

– Emily Sorensen, Senior Editor, MobileTransaction

The lack of pricing transparency is bad for small businesses comparing payment products, but we think AIBMS’s tailored solutions could make sense to discuss on the phone. You should ask for a list of all the fees and contract terms to read before signing anything to avoid surprises down the line.

Many users have had a bad experience of the service, some with sudden high fees taken from their account, but there are some positive ratings too.

It’s good that support options are there every day of the week, but we hear some merchants have problems getting through to them on the phone. Hospitality businesses should ask for a number for technical support during busy hours at night, as this is not a given.

AIBMS offers many types of card machines, so finding one with the right features and POS integrations won’t be a problem. I personally prefer the mobile PAX machine for its reliability. But the various monthly fees can get quite expensive if you’re not reaching a certain sales volume every month.

So we suggest you determine your card turnover for the next few years, get an ABIMS quote and compare it with other card machines before you decide on an AIBMS contract.

Card machines

If there’s one thing I like about AIB Merchant Services, it’s their wide range of card machines for stationary, portable and mobile use.

Increasingly, businesses prefer mobile and portable card machines. They are wireless models that work anywhere with a 4G network connection or WiFi. AIBMS merchants can choose between these mobile terminals:

Clover Flex: This is a bestseller among Clover terminals, so the model has recently been improved with a larger screen. The white, glossy handheld touchscreen terminal has various apps and functions that can be added to make it a self-sufficient checkout.

It can also be used as a portable card machine within a WiFi base on your premises. All Clover devices connect so you, for example, have a desktop setup with a Clover Mini tablet, supplemented with a portable Clover Flex for table service.

PAX A920Pro: The other main AIBMS card machine, PAX A920Pro, has for a while been popular across Europe and the UK. It has a 5.5″ touchscreen and can be used both in store with WiFi or Bluetooth, or on the go with 4G.

“We’ve had a good experience of PAX A920Pro. I found it easy to hold and navigate, and the touchscreen is a bit faster than the original PAX A920 model. AIBMS has its own terminal software which looks different than the one I tested, though.”

– Emily Sorensen, Senior Editor, MobileTransaction

The HD display makes A920Pro very attractive for displaying offers and branded screens when it’s just sitting on the counter. It also has built-in cameras for barcode scanning, a fast receipt printer and a long battery life.

Verifone V240m: This is a modern card machine with multiple connectivity options, a touchscreen and physical PIN pad below the 3.5” colour touchscreen.

Like the PAX terminal, V240m has a rear camera which can be activated to scan barcodes and coupons, but this may require certain software.

Ingenico Move/3500: Popular with merchants on a budget, this terminal has a fast processor and improved NFC reader for fast contactless payments. Move 35000 has an 8-hour battery life and 3.2″ colour screen with an ergonomic push-button PIN pad below.

Although card machines with large touchscreens have become popular, some people still prefer the familiar, user-friendly touch of push-buttons, so it could be the best option for a broader appeal.

Of the stationary card machines, you can choose between the compact tablet register Clover Mini, larger touchscreen register setup Clover Station Pro, PAX A80 or Ingenico Desk/3500 (pictured below).

The Clover devices look good from the customer’s side of the counter, but we’ve heard from cashiers they aren’t so reliable. I’d only recommend them if you’re keen on their aesthetic appeal and want more than a few Clover terminals as part of a coherent setup across a business.

A stationary terminal is plugged into a power socket and possibly broadband cable at all times, so it’s only suitable for a fixed till system.

These can be mixed and matched, and each terminal may have add-ons like mobile connectivity with a SIM card (usually costs extra), software upgrades and integrations with POS systems.

With an AIB card payment machine, you can offer Tax Free forms and Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC) for accepting GBP, USD, CAD, AUD and other foreign currencies. These features are not available at SumUp or Square, and therefore part of what makes AIBMS a ‘premium’ solution.

Past transactions can be accessed and printed on each terminal, but additional sales reports are available in the free web-based merchant portal AIBMS Insight. This shows transaction data, settlement status, charges and statements.

Fees and pricing

AIB Merchant Services tailors their charges for each business – to an extent. Some costs are the same for everyone, while others depend on your card turnover, type of business and payment requirements. It is also certain that a contract lock-in is required, spanning anywhere between 1 and 4 years.

You won’t find a public pricing list from AIBMS, so their cost transparency is quite poor. We have nevertheless seen the following fees mentioned for AIB merchants.

AIBMS – or First Data, to be precise – will give you an interchange++ fee structure where transaction fees depend on the brand and type of debit or credit card. Usually, this is a percentage rate (e.g. 1%-3%) plus a fixed fee in some cases (e.g. €0.01-€0.15) with a fixed authorisation charge added on top (e.g. €0.02). Domestic consumer debit cards by Visa and Mastercard tend to have the lowest rates, whereas foreign, premium credit cards have the highest fees.

You may get a simpler pricing structure if the monthly card turnover is relatively small, but this usually means a higher fixed rate per transaction. American Express requires an extra contract with separate transaction fees.

“High-volume merchants can get lower transactions fees with AIB Merchant Services. I don’t recommend it for small businesses because of its myriads of ongoing costs, though.”

– Emily Sorensen, Senior Editor, MobileTransaction

There’s also a monthly minimum service charge, for example €30, which is the minimum amount that First Data requires in transaction costs on a monthly basis. So even if your card processing fees are only €10, you’ll still pay €30 that month, which covers the card processing fee plus the service charge.

Various monthly charges apply as well, mainly for card machine rental, software features (for Clover in particular), PCI compliance and the merchant account. Mobile terminal users may also pay for SIM card usage.

There are fixed costs for things like chargebacks, setting up and if a terminal needs replacing or repairs.

An early termination fee applies which could amount to hundreds of euros, if there are several months or years left on the contract when you cancel it.

We strongly recommend close-reading any new contract with AIB Merchant Services, Clover and/or First Data as they all have rules about notice periods, termination fees and responsibilities around PCI compliance and terminal leases. It’s normal for their merchants to be surprised about hidden fees after signing a payment contract.

The ‘Insight’ web portal for viewing transactions and reports is free to use, but we’ve seen a €7 monthly charge for the luxury of getting paper statements.

Remote and online payments

AIB merchant card services also let you accept online payments through AIB’s Authipay software. It’s meant to be easy to set up, but it does have additional fees to the card machine costs mentioned earlier.

One of the Authipay tools is a browser-based virtual terminal, which is a web page where the merchant enters the cardholder’s payment details to complete a transaction online on behalf of the customer. This is used for telephone and mail order payments, where the customer is not physically present.

Authipay also includes an online payment gateway to integrate in your online store. This is basically an online checkout where card processing is handled by First Data/AIBMS.

None of these things are special features for a payment processor, and we don’t think they are enough to sway someone over to sign a contract with them.

Service and AIBMS reviews

If merchants run into trouble with their card machine, they can ring the terminal supplier which may be Clover rather than AIBMS. You get a phone number and email address to correspond with any day of the week, as there’s meant to be an account manager associated with each business.

That being said, we’ve seen many complaints about the lack of responses or availability when trying to phone support. High monthly fees and poor handling of disputes have been mentioned, but there are also positive reviews talking about efficient resolutions to problems – so it’s a mixed bag.

If you’re getting a Clover terminal, you’re not only dealing with AIB Merchant Services, but also Clover directly when needing their help. This has complicated communications in some cases, when merchants have been passed between one and another customer service representative from different parties.