The National Pharmacy Association (NPA) claim that 80% of UK households are within 500 metres from a community pharmacy.
This means several thousand outlets over the UK will be accepting cards as a form of payment for their medicines and toiletries. Iain High, managing director at Anderson Zaks explains some of the new options now available to pharmacies for taking payments, and how there will be significant savings.

To accept card payments in your Pharmacy you will need to set up a merchant facility, through a card acquirer who will capture the payment transaction details from the cardholder, and settle the funds to your bank account. This standard card processing service includes set up and installation of a payment terminal, which is provided through a range of fees to you the merchant.
With over 90% of the UK adult population holding either a debit or credit card, it is no surprise that pharmacies take on average 400 card transactions a month*. With this in mind, anything that can reduce the cost of handling cards is therefore welcome.

In High Street retail most department stores, supermarkets and fashion chains deploy an ‘integrated solution for card acceptance. This means that their point of sale system (EPOS) is integrated to incorporate a PIN pad and the direct communication to the card processor is via broadband rather than a dedicated PSTN or ISDN line.

* Taken from card transaction volumes of pharmacies using Anderson Zaks for card processing

This technology is now available to pharmacists. The first 100 pharmacies using this solution report that they are saving anything up to £50 per month in terms of payment terminal charges, telecoms and practice labour costs.
One of the first EPOS solution providers deploying this service is Nottingham based, CSY Computer Systems, an NPA approved supplier.

Ross Pierrepont, who is Managing Director at CSY, confirmed that his customers are seeing significant savings and says, "We are finding that any pharmacy taking more than 200 card transactions per month will benefit from using this system. For multi chain and higher volume outlets this also automatically gives them PCI DSS accreditation, a requirement for all businesses taking and holding credit card data."
The majority of NPA member are acquired by either RBS WorldPay, Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds/HBOS or Elavon. All have approved the services.

A spokesperson from RBS WorldPay commented, "We are delighted that NPA members can be offered a lower cost, secure PCI-DSS approved method of processing their credit card transactions with our bank."
The system, called RedCard, being offered by CSY Computer Systems has been developed with Anderson Zaks, one of the UK’s leading providers of integrated payment solutions.