Brian - we use AffiniPay (and love them). We used the card swipe into a custom form that they created for us at the last major conference, but would use it more if there was better integration. We primarily use it for on-site payments and store transactions. We only use Macs, so that is very important to us in what you are implementing. A couple of problems I see:
1) the payment portion of the registration process is far too rigid (fields required, optional fields, etc.) for these methods
2) with the new iPhone 7 (and later), there is no audio jack, so that will present a problem until the manufacturers offer a lightning port
Any help in making this process more integrated would be greatly appreciated and we would be happy to help with testing.

Brian, I like the idea of a PC option with a reader. I can think of a trip hazard where there may not be WiFi available. Case in point, at our last show, we had WiFi on the show floor, but it was spotty at best. For the card swipe, we were able to use mobile data. My point is that having something rely on WiFi might be tricky (but a step in the right direction).

What is the security reassurance when using a mobile card reader? We've thought about it but are concerned that a hotel or convention center connection isn't secured and don't want to run transactions over it.

Hi Brian - Our registration desk is hard wired for PCI compliance purposes. It would be great if we could go to an invoice (from the front or backend), click the Credit Card Radio button, Swipe the card with the USB reader filling in the info and then push the Confirm/Process and Record Payment. We

Same with the mobile app - I'd like to just replace the part in the registration step where we type in the credit card info in and just be able to swipe the data into YM - I don't know how complicated that gets in terms of programming

Brian:

I've used the usb swiper for several years now and what I have found is that it sometimes works and sometimes it doesn't. When it won't swipe we end up entering the information manually on our PC. This is a timely process, especially during convention. I recently purchased the mobile readers for phones. Tried to use it once and it was a bomb. The device didn't stay charged long, the WiFi kept dropping or the phone batteries drained fast. Did not have a great experience. Also, as someone stated above there is no way to tie these offsite transactions back into YM event - all has to been done manually. Onsite registration at convention is still a process. No time to sit and enter a person in YM, CC transactions have to be (1) batch out of Affinipay and matched up (very timely), (2) off site registrations have to be entered to create an invoice and then (3) the actual payment has to be entered into YM.

I like the kiosk idea. Interested in hearing more.

We used a cc swipe from Affinipay for the first time at our annual meeting. It was used 172 times for walk-ups and for the sale of extra tickets. I cannot imagine how crowded my reg desk would have been if not for this. It came free when we changed to YM and Affinipay. I want a second one for next year. 

Ordered the Affinipay card reader in October 2016, and used it at our big Wine tasting Event. I had been using Chase Checkout. The card reader worked well for the transaction, but was "loose fitting" on the new ipads we just bought so you had to hold it in place. Software was clear and easy to use. I was able to send receipts to my laptop and the customer simultaneously & automatically, and when I downloaded the reporting from Affinipay, I was able to line things up easily to the registrations. However, i still had to add them to the YM system which was time consuming. Would be fabulous if there was some integration. It's still a huge improvement from the Chase system i was using, where i had only the last four digits of cc to match to (no name in their reporting) which required me to keep manual records to pair to. The affinipay reader is chip enabled but the software still not ready for the chip. I am thinking of ordering another one.

What if we split the needs into two separate updates?

• Have a way to automatically connect YM invoices to CC payments processed via a Payment Processor specific mobile card reader such as with Affinipay or BluePay?

• Add a checkout option for 'card present' where a swiped card will populate the CC fields.
  

Which update is more pressing for your needs?

Brian, whatever happened to this? I see some ideabox information that indicidates that it could/would happen. Then it seems that it was wiped off the roadmap. Mobile payments are needed more than ever in 2019..people were asking for this way back in 2016.