We all know that accepting credit and branded debit cards is important in business. The tough part is figuring out which payment processor to use. Up until now, I have been using Virtual Terminal from PayPal for my credit card processing. This allowed me to accept credit card payment over the phone/web, through the mail and in person.
PayPal charges $30 per month whether you process a single charge or not. In addition, they also charge 2.4-3.1% plus 30 cents per transaction. There are no setup charges.
This was actually a pretty good deal compared with many of the merchant accounts I had looked at and approval was moderately easy.
It was okay, but that $30 monthly charged really bugged me. That’s why I decided to take a look at Square for my credit card processing.
Square is a new company founded by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey. Square allows businesses and individuals to accept Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express right from their IPhone, IPad or Android Phone, using a small card reader that plugs into the phones audio jack. How cool is that.
Best of all, there is no set up charge and no monthly fee. If you don’t process a charge, you pay nothing. The processing fees are 2.75% of the transaction amount on charges where the card is swiped through the reader. If the card information is entered manually, the fee goes up to 3.5% plus 15 cents.
Yes, the per transaction fees are a little higher than what I had with PayPal, but there is no monthly fee. Plus, the approval process was very easy and fast. It literally took me less than five minutes to set up my account. The even send the card reader for FREE.
So far, I’m very impressed by what Square offers, but obviously, I can’t give it a ringing endorsement just yet because I haven’t received the reader yet. Once I start using it, I’ll be sure to report back and let you know how it’s working.
Do you have any experience with Square? Feel free to share it in the comments section.
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Thanks for sharing such informative post. I will definitely use Square for all my financial transactions which will be free of that extra charges which we used to pay in paypal.
Hi Robert:
I received my free Square card reader about a week after I applied for an account. I think that was pretty fast. So far, it seems to be working fine. Have you tried it yet?
All the best,
Tim
This is so nice. I have not tried it but it seems nice. The best part is that not only can you can use your phone but that it is free. Nice information.
So far, I’m loving this little device and the service. I’ll post a full review soon.
All the best,
Tim