Vending Basics for New Operators
Why your vending machines should take cards.
Here is what card and phone payments add for your customers and for you, and what a vending machine needs to take them.
Fewer of your customers carry cash.
About 20% of in-person payments were made in cash in 2025, and 16% of consumers named cash as the way they most prefer to pay in person (Federal Reserve, 2026 Diary of Consumer Payment Choice).
A machine that takes only coins and bills can sell only to the people who have them on hand. Everyone else walks past it.
Operators report higher sales after adding card readers.
35% sales growth
Average across 250,000 machines with card readers over 18 months, in a study by a card reader maker with Michigan State University. Cash sales on those machines grew 17%.
11% to 15% more sales
At one operator’s locations after adding card readers. Another operator saw location sales grow 15% within three months.
What else changes for an operator.
Prices without coin math
A card pays the exact price, so a price no longer has to suit the coins a customer might carry.
Less cash to handle
Every card sale is money you never have to collect, count, or carry to the bank.
Sales you can see
With Dryline, each card vend is recorded against the product in its coil, so you know what sold without opening the machine.
More than one item per tap
On machines that support Multivend, a customer can buy several items with one payment.
The vend modes guide covers Multivend, and How MDB works shows how cards and cash share the machine.
What a machine needs to take cards.
Rain Pay works with most modern vending machines that support MDB cashless, the standard payment connection inside a vending machine. There is no retrofit for a machine that cannot take MDB cashless.
The Rain Pay reader (a Dejavoo QD3) takes tap, chip, and swipe, plus Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay. It connects over Wi-Fi or cellular with a SIM included, so the location does not need to give you a network. The reader is a one-time purchase, Dryline is billed per reader each month, and current prices are on the Pricing page.
For the install itself, read How to add a card reader to a vending machine.
Questions about cashless vending
- Do I have to stop taking cash to take cards?
- No. A card reader shares the machine’s MDB connection with the coin mechanism and bill validator. Cash and cards work side by side, and each customer pays the way they like.
- Do customers need an app to pay?
- No. They pay at the reader with a card, a phone, or a watch, and they never download anything or make an account.
- Should a new operator start with cashless?
- Yes. Put a reader on every machine that supports MDB cashless from the first day, so no customer is turned away for not carrying cash.
More vending basics.
Tap to Start, Select First, and Multivend
Pay first, choose first, or buy several items with one tap, and why your machine has a say.
How MDB works
How the controller runs the coin mechanism, bill validator, and card reader on one connection.
Planograms
The map of a machine: what goes in each slot, at what price, and how full to fill it.
Stocking strategies
A first product mix, par levels, rotation, and restocking the machines that need it.
Starting a vending business
Licenses, sales tax, insurance, machines, locations, commissions, pricing, and routes.
Add cards to the machines you already run.
Order the Rain Pay reader online. It ships registered to your account.