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Stripe card readers

A Stripe Reader is a small countertop card terminal with its own screen. The POS on your laptop, iPad or phone sends the sale to it; the customer taps, inserts or swipes on the reader; the POS finishes the sale. The money lands in your school's Stripe account like any other card sale.

It's the way to take cards when the person at the register isn't on an iPhone — on iPhones, Tap to Pay on iPhone needs no hardware at all.

Borrow one from myblueboard — free

You don't need to buy a reader. myblueboard lends Stripe Readers to subscribing schools free of charge, for a single event or a whole season. Email support@myblueboard.com with your school name, the event date(s) and where to ship it. Return it when you're done.

What you need

  • Stripe connected and verified, with myShop POS (in person) set to Stripe under Settings › Financials (see choosing a processor)
  • myShop Admin Access to register readers and run the POS
  • Wi‑Fi for the reader — any ordinary password-protected network, including a phone's personal hotspot or a mobile hotspot puck. Networks with a sign-in page (most school guest Wi‑Fi) won't work.

Registering a reader

Do this once per reader, before the event.

  1. Turn the reader on and join it to Wi‑Fi from its own settings screen (Stripe's card in the box shows how). Once online, have it generate a pairing code — a three-word code such as apple-pear-lemon.
  2. In myblueboard go to Settings → Financials and, under Stripe, click Card readers (POS).
  3. Under Register a reader, type the pairing code and a label you'll recognise at the table (e.g. Front table), then register.

The reader appears under Registered readers with its status — online or offline — and you can rename or remove it from the same page. A borrowed reader is registered to your school while you have it; remove it before sending it back.

Taking a payment

  1. Open the POS (Manage myShop → POS View, or Menu → myShop → myShop in the mybb app), add the items and tap Checkout.
  2. Choose Card reader and pick the reader from the list. Offline readers are marked "(offline)" and can't be used — Refresh once the reader is back on Wi‑Fi.
  3. Tap Pay. The reader shows the items and total, then asks the customer to tap, insert or swipe. The POS waits.
  4. When the card is approved, Sale complete appears in the POS with the total and a receipt QR code the customer can scan to open their receipt — or type an email address to send it. Flip turns the screen round for the customer; New sale clears for the next one.

Cancel in the POS stops whatever the reader is doing and clears its screen. A declined card shows the bank's reason; nothing is charged and you can try again.

Wi‑Fi, hotspots and outages

  • The reader talks only to Stripe, and your POS device talks only to myblueboard. They don't need to be on the same network — just both online.
  • A phone hotspot works well. On an iPhone turn on Maximize Compatibility so the reader can join, keep the phone plugged in, and join the reader before you need it.
  • There's no offline mode. If the network drops, the reader shows offline and the POS says so when you try to pay. It reconnects on its own within about half a minute of the network coming back — nothing to re-register.
  • If the network drops after the customer tapped but before the POS showed "Sale complete", stay on the sale: the POS finishes it as soon as the connection returns. If you had to leave the page, check Activity — the payment is there and can be refunded or recorded by hand.

Sharing a reader

One reader can be used from several laptops or tablets, one sale at a time. While it's collecting a card for one register, a second register gets a "reader is busy" message until the first sale finishes. For two checkout lines, use two readers — or put the second line on Tap to Pay on iPhone.