You know what is hot on the streets right now? Being able to sell products and/or services anywhere you can get a cellular signal that’s what. Think about it, imagine being a street vendor and being able to accept more than cash anywhere you go. Being able to accept a credit or debit card (as long as it has the Visa or MasterCard logo on it), with nothing more than your smartphone and a little card reader that plugs into the headset jack of your device. This is the essence of Square.
I signed up for Square as soon as I heard about it. Sign up is free, as well as the card reader you need to swipe credit cards. After you sign up, you will have to wait for the reader to arrive, a process that took forever for me (I believe the arrival has gotten since I signed up), before you can start accepting payments (this might have also changed as when I recently signed up my fiance, she was able to start using it right away).
Now I have been a long time Paypal user and I’ve never had a real problem with you. They have however, had one issue with them. I had no way to accept a pay right on the spot. I’m a very mobile person, and sometimes when I do odd jobs, I would have to send a Paypal invoice and then wait for payment. Sometimes I wished I could of collected payment right then and there.
I could of opened up a merchant account and purchased a mobile credit card reader yes. However, the odd jobs I do wouldn’t have been enough to justify this route. This is where Square comes in. With Square my mobile credit card machine is my smartphone (Some Android, iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad) and a little dongle that plugs into my device.
Square rates are comparable to that of Paypal. For every swiped card transaction, they take out 2.75% + $.15 (which is actually cheaper than Paypal’s 2.9% + $.30) and 3.75% + $.20 per manually entered number transaction. This is a little more than Paypal, but still something I can live with for the convenience of collecting the money right then and there.
Once a transaction has been made by Square, they usually will deposit your money into a account you set within 24 hours. And that is it! Simple, Easy, Free, and it gets the job done! I’m a Square head now, why aren’t you?
