Are you using a mobile card reader for Affinipay or BluePay?
If you are using a mobile card reader or have a need for it I would like to get your feedback on how you manage the process. How are you synchronizing the mobile payment with the invoice in YM? Are you using the mobile app for your specific merchant to record payments only or do you use their built in storefront for selling event tickets and Memberships? Is the in-person scenario mainly for an event registration for same-day registrants or does your organization attend conferences as exhibitors and have a need to register new members who visit your booth?
I am working closely with my counterparts for Affinipay and BluePay so we can identify how an integrated process will benefit your Membership drives and Event Registrations. Let's start the conversation here. I look forward to your feedback.

We've tried to use the mobile card reader from Affinipay and also the USB swiper for at the door convention registration, however, it's clunky and not super efficient. We would really like to be able to do this since it looks WAY more professional, is faster and less error prone however we really need it to tie back to YM. Our chapters are asking for this as well since they need to collect at the door meeting fees and get frustrated having to type in someone's credit card number, etc.

We used the card reader from PayPal (we have a PayPal account also, and it has cheaper fees than BP), and while it was nice to have the swiping capability, there was no way to tie the transaction back to anything in YM. We had to manually record who made what payment and for what reason (donation v. renewal, etc), then create invoices retroactively in YM. It was an improved experience for our members (and one that they generally expect) but a huge pain for us when we got back.

The ultimate goal is to have the transaction go full circle so there is no manual data entry required in YM.  Was the mobile reader clunky or the USB swiper?  I am imagining a kiosk type setup where you have a PC or is this stricly a mobile operation with tablets or cell phones?

We definitely want to remove the scenario where a credit card number is transferred manually via data entry and, worse, copied down on paper so it can be processed later. I will do some research on what is available to us for calling into the PayPal API to see if we can support it or not with a full-cycle payment in YM.

Mobile is preferred. Wouldn't it be cool if there was an app or an extension of YM where one could call up the individual's record and select from a quick action menu (register, renew, event registration, donation) and the process parces out based on the member's name (we can jump off folks who aren't in our system later). Just fun thinking.

Brian - we do a membership booth, sell merchandise and full onsite registration for 1,000+ people at our conventions using YM. We would love to have full circle credit card processing - if I had the ability, I would do both ie have a reg desk with staff at PCs and a self-service kiosk with Tablets. The clunky part was manually having to reconcile transactions after the show - and losing some uncollected revenue that fell through the cracks between YM and the credit card processor. 

Heather - thanks for the info. As these mobile apps are Android or iOS dependent what are your thoughts on using a card reader at the registration desk where the machine being used is a Windows-based PC?  We are adding to our API so  a payment can be recorded via the API for an invoice. We can leverage this somehow for recording the payment in the event the mobile app for Affinipay or BluePay or PayPal cannot be utilized.  There are ways to run Android apps on the Windows machine but they require a third party app to run the Android app inside Windows. Seems clunky but I certainly do not want to limit this update to just mobile apps and still have a clunky process for your registration desk.

Liz - Looks like PayPal has an extensive API offering to integrate into their card reader. This is good news..

Well, this is timely. I just ordered recently the Mobile App piece from Affinipay and will use this Mobile swipe for on-site registrations that are not in the YM program already. My understanding is that the Mobile swiper is only good for the App products like a smartphone or tablet.Hoping this all works.
I still use the manual entry for attendees that are paying for outstanding balances within the YM. I tried the USB swiper last year but ran into problems with the reader and some cards, especially the chips.
Would love to hear if I can do something better before the next 2 weeks start of the conference.