Tap to Pay

What you need

Tap to Pay turns your own phone into the card machine. Your client holds their card, phone or watch against it and the payment goes through. There is no reader to buy, nothing to charge overnight and nothing extra to carry to a guest spot.

It runs in the Maelo app on an Android phone, and the hardware requirements are set by Google and Stripe rather than by Maelo.

• On Android: an Android 13 phone or later with NFC, on a security patch from the last twelve months. Developer options and USB debugging must be switched off, because the reader will not start on a phone in debug mode.
• Everywhere: Stripe connected and able to take payments. See setting up Stripe.

Switching it on

Everything lives in the Maelo app on your phone, under Settings, Payments, Tap to Pay. It is not in the browser version of Maelo. The first card tells you whether the device you are holding can tap, and the Status card underneath names the next thing to do.

1. 1

   Step 1: Connect Stripe

   If the status reads Connect Stripe to get paid, that comes first. Tap Set up payouts and finish Stripe's form.
2. 2

   Step 2: Read the guide

   The How it works card opens by itself the first time you are ready. Open the guide brings it back whenever you want it.

Once the status reads Ready to take payments, you are done.

Taking a payment

Open the booking, tap Collect Payment, and Tap to Pay is the first option on the list. Check the amount, then have your client hold their card flat against your phone and keep it there until the checkmark appears. Your phone shows you where to tap, usually on the back near the top.

Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay work exactly the same way. Your client holds their own phone or watch to yours and confirms on their device with their face, a fingerprint or a passcode. Watches count too: they double click the side button, then hold the watch face to your phone.

Your phone shows the amount on screen throughout, so your client can see what they are approving before they tap.

When your client is asked for a PIN

Above a certain amount the card's bank may ask for a PIN. Your phone shows a keypad. Hand the phone to your client and let them type it themselves. You never see the digits, and neither does Maelo.

The threshold is set by the card networks in your country, not by Maelo. It is 100 GBP in the United Kingdom, 100 USD in the United States, 250 CAD in Canada, 200 AUD in Australia and 50 EUR across Ireland, France, the Netherlands and Finland. Whether a PIN is actually asked for is the bank's call on the day, so treat these as the point above which it becomes likely rather than a promise.

If a card will not go through

Some cards are not able to complete contactless transactions using a PIN. If this occurs, simply ask the customer if they have an alternative contactless card or digital wallet and continue the transaction using Tap to Pay.

If they have nothing else contactless, Maelo hands you straight to another payment method without losing the amount you already entered. Charge a card you have on file, send them a link to pay online, or take a bank transfer.

In Canada there is one limit worth knowing before it surprises you. An Interac debit card cannot be tapped for more than 100 CAD, because above that the bank requires the card to be inserted and a PIN entered, which no phone can do. Ask for a credit card or a digital wallet, or take an Interac e-Transfer instead.

What it costs, and what it sees

Maelo takes nothing from a Tap to Pay payment. Its fee is charged once, on the deposit. Stripe's card processing cost applies the same way it does to any other card charge, and the money joins your balance and pays out on your usual schedule.

Card numbers and PINs are handled on the device itself, by Stripe's reader. Maelo never sees them, and neither do you. What you get back is the same record you get from any card payment, in the Payments tab of Financial, refundable in the same place.