iPhone Credit Card Payments with Square
Kevin Rose, of Digg Fame, has jumped into the credit card payment fray with his investment in Square. Here he is, showing it off:
With a Square device and an iPhone, you can accept credit card payments just like any merchant. It’s pretty impressive, actually.
I can accept credit card payments using PayPal, but they don’t have an easy way for me to process a transaction on the go. If I want to accept credit card payments, I need to have a laptop AND wi-fi. They do have a PayPal iPhone App [iTunes Link], but it doesn’t allow me to accept payments with it. It would be nice if they included that feature in a future update.
There are applications at iTunes that let you accept credit card payments, like Swipe Credit Card Terminal [iTunes Link], but you have to type in all the information by hand instead of being able to easily swipe their card. Additionally, they require you to sign up for a merchant account. How Square will handle that issue hasn’t been revealed.
Square looks like a really good idea, but until we know the details, like what fees they will charge, I’m holding off my judgment.
I heard that the fees were going to be something like .50 per transaction plus a percent of the sale like 3%. That seems like an awful lot.
I think VeriFone’s Payware Mobile will end up being the route to go. AS it will be less expensive and definitely as secure. They have been in credit card transaction biz for decades. http://paywaremobile.com
Comment by Norbert K — January 30, 2010 @ 8:50 pm