Guide · Singapore
Choosing a card terminal
Every terminal takes a card. What separates them is everything that happens around the transaction — whether one device also takes wallet QR, whether it can scan the customer as well as be scanned, whether a member of staff can refund on it without raising a ticket, and whether it keeps working when the shop Wi-Fi drops. Those are the questions that decide whether you are happy in a year.
In short
- Three card entry methods on one unit: contactless, chip, magnetic stripe. Do not drop the third.
- One device for cards, wallets and QR, or you have bought a second counter.
- Both QR directions: scan them, and be scanned. The customer decides which.
- Refund and void on the device — not by support ticket.
- 4G fallback. Shop Wi-Fi fails on the busiest day, not the quietest.
The entry methods, and the one merchants are tempted to drop
Contactless is the fastest and is what most local customers reach for first, whether from a card, a phone or a watch. Chip and insert is the fallback and is still routine. Both are non-negotiable on any current device.
Magnetic stripe is the one merchants are tempted to treat as obsolete. It is not, in a market with this many overseas visitors — some cards a visitor is carrying still need it, and the failure mode is the worst kind: a customer at the counter, a queue behind them, and no way to complete the sale.
Uniweb Pay supplies a Sunmi P3: contactless, chip and insert, magnetic stripe and QR wallets on one unit, with thermal receipt printing and 4G or Wi-Fi.
One device, or two boxes on the counter
This is the decision that has the largest effect on daily life, and it is usually made by accident. A card terminal from one supplier and a wallet arrangement from another means two devices, two accounts behind them, two settlement cycles and two reconciliations — every day, indefinitely.
A single smart terminal on a single merchant account means the card, the wallet QR and Dynamic PayNow all go through one unit, land in one batch and appear on one statement. The saving is not on the rate card; it is roughly the time somebody currently spends every evening making two sets of numbers agree.
Counter space is the smaller half of the argument, but it is not nothing — a second box needs a plug, a connection and somewhere to live, and on a small counter it competes with the things you sell.
The QR direction question, which almost nobody asks
There are two ways a QR payment can run, and a shop wants both. Merchant-presented: the terminal displays a code carrying the amount, and the shopper scans it. Consumer-presented: the shopper opens the payment code in their wallet app, and the terminal scans them.
Which one happens is the customer’s choice, not the merchant’s — it depends on their app, their habit and how they are holding their phone. A device that only supports one direction turns some proportion of transactions into a negotiation at the counter, and it shows up as queue time rather than as a fault.
Ask on the demo, and test it both ways, with the wallet apps your customers actually use.
The operational questions that decide a year from now
| Question | Why it matters in practice |
|---|---|
| Can staff void and refund on the device? | A refund that needs a support ticket is a customer standing there while you explain. It is also the most common source of a reconciliation discrepancy. |
| Does it print a receipt that names the method? | A till total that does not split cards from wallets cannot be checked against a statement that does. |
| Does it fall back to 4G? | Shop Wi-Fi fails on a Saturday, not a Tuesday. |
| How long does the battery last on a busy day? | For anything mobile — table service, markets, events — this is the whole question. |
| Who replaces it if it dies, and how fast? | A dead terminal is not an inconvenience, it is that day’s takings. |
| Can access to admin functions be restricted? | Refund rights in the hands of everyone who works a shift is a control problem. |
None of those appear on a specification sheet, and all of them are answerable on a demo in fifteen minutes.
Mobile, table service and events
If payment happens away from a fixed counter — a restaurant taking payment at the table, a stall at a market, a stand at an event — the questions shift. Battery life over a full trading day matters more than anything on the rate card, and 4G stops being a fallback and becomes the primary connection.
Receipt printing on the device is worth more in these settings than at a fixed counter, because there is no second printer to fall back to and a customer at a table expects the receipt to arrive with the machine.
The same unit should still take everything. A mobile setup that takes cards but not wallet QR reintroduces exactly the problem a single device was supposed to solve, in the setting where it is hardest to work around.
What we do not publish, and what to ask us directly
Terminal pricing is not published, in line with rates generally — it is quoted per merchant. Several Singapore providers publish terminal prices; if that comparison is what you need before speaking to anyone, they are worth reading.
Which third-party POS systems acceptance can sit behind is also not published. If you are running an existing POS and need acceptance to integrate with it specifically, ask us directly rather than assuming either way — it is a real question with a real answer, and it is not one this page can give.
What is published: the device is a Sunmi P3; it takes contactless, chip and insert, magnetic stripe and QR wallets on one unit; it prints thermal receipts; it runs on 4G or Wi-Fi; staff can search a transaction and void or refund on the device; and cards, Alipay+, WeChat Pay, UnionPay and Dynamic PayNow all run through it on one merchant account, settling in SGD in T+1 batches.
Questions merchants ask
What should a card terminal in Singapore support?
Contactless, chip and insert, and magnetic stripe on one unit, plus QR wallets in both scan directions. Magnetic stripe is worth keeping — some cards overseas visitors carry still require it.
Do I need a separate device for wallet QR?
You should not. A smart terminal takes cards, Alipay+, WeChat Pay, UnionPay and Dynamic PayNow on one unit and one merchant account, which means one batch and one reconciliation.
What is the most overlooked thing to test on a demo?
Whether the terminal can scan the customer’s phone as well as display a code for them to scan. Which direction happens is the customer’s choice, and a device that does only one slows a queue.
Does the terminal work without Wi-Fi?
The Sunmi P3 runs on 4G or Wi-Fi. That matters more than it sounds, because shop Wi-Fi tends to fail on the busiest trading day rather than the quietest.
Does Uniweb Pay publish terminal prices?
No. Terminal pricing is quoted per merchant, in line with rates generally. Which third-party POS systems acceptance can sit behind is also not published — ask directly if you have an existing POS.
Talk to us about your counter
Uniweb Pay is a Singapore merchant acquirer, licensed by MAS as a Major Payment Institution (No. PS20200612). Tell us what you sell and who pays you, and we will tell you whether we are the right fit — including when we are not.