A company called Square has released a product for the iPhone that allows individuals to accept credit card payments without having a merchant account with a bank.
Until now, to accept credit card payments you needed to purchase an expensive credit card machine and pay a bank a monthly fee to be part of a credit card network. Most banks have a monthly minimum volume of transactions, too.
With Square, there are no contracts, no setup fees, no minimums, and no extra equipment to buy. Anyone with an iPhone can have the ability to accept payment by credit card. There's a transaction fee, but it's pretty reasonable.
The product has two parts. First is a small, cube-shaped card reader that plugs into the headphone port of the iPhone or iPad. Second is an application that captures the data from the card reader, uploads to the Square credit card processing system, and issues a receipt to the credit card's owner by email.
There are two neat features that you can include with the transaction. You can take a photo of the person buying the product, or of the merchandise being purchased, and attach to the receipt. And the iPhone can attach GPS information so the purchaser knows where the transaction took place.
The Square application keeps track of purchases made and cash received. By signing on to your seller's account at the Square website, you can produce a variety of reports that help manage your finances.
Now the bad news: Square charges 2.75% plus 15 cents for each transaction. This is similar to the fee charged to the seller by Paypal and Google Checkout.
Today, Square works with iPhone/iPad and with Android phones. More platforms will be supported in the future.
Here's a brainless youtube video that shows how a Square transaction works
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0BwYz1P0BE
The Square website is http://www.squareup.com
Until now, to accept credit card payments you needed to purchase an expensive credit card machine and pay a bank a monthly fee to be part of a credit card network. Most banks have a monthly minimum volume of transactions, too.
With Square, there are no contracts, no setup fees, no minimums, and no extra equipment to buy. Anyone with an iPhone can have the ability to accept payment by credit card. There's a transaction fee, but it's pretty reasonable.
The product has two parts. First is a small, cube-shaped card reader that plugs into the headphone port of the iPhone or iPad. Second is an application that captures the data from the card reader, uploads to the Square credit card processing system, and issues a receipt to the credit card's owner by email.
There are two neat features that you can include with the transaction. You can take a photo of the person buying the product, or of the merchandise being purchased, and attach to the receipt. And the iPhone can attach GPS information so the purchaser knows where the transaction took place.
The Square application keeps track of purchases made and cash received. By signing on to your seller's account at the Square website, you can produce a variety of reports that help manage your finances.
Now the bad news: Square charges 2.75% plus 15 cents for each transaction. This is similar to the fee charged to the seller by Paypal and Google Checkout.
Today, Square works with iPhone/iPad and with Android phones. More platforms will be supported in the future.
Here's a brainless youtube video that shows how a Square transaction works
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0BwYz1P0BE
The Square website is http://www.squareup.com