A pal has a store and he’s bitching about credit card fees. By the time he adds it up it’s a lot more than the standard fee he was quoted.
I mentioned Square - Apple’s thing, I think? - as I’ve certainly seen it around. But I don’t know that much about it.
Does anyone know what it’s all about? Fees, portability and so forth?
Square also has fees. I think about comparable to the credit card’s fees, possibly more. I haven’t used it in awhile so I can’t give a precise figure. It’s convenient, though. Anywhere your smartphone works (including androids), it works.
How to get one. They send it to you for free. They take 2.75% from each transaction.
I’ve had one and used it, and it’s quite simple. You create an account with them, download an app on your phone (Apple or Android), and that’s pretty much it.
Potential downsides: it does have to be linked to your bank account in order to deposit the money, so if you have privacy concerns, don’t bother. In my experience, though, it’s not an issue. They come in a headphone jack version or a lightning connector version, so if you have an Android phone like mine with a USB-C connector and no headphone jack, you might have a problem; I’m not sure if it’ll work with a dongle.
FYI, it’s not from Apple. The company was founded and is run by the same guy who founded and runs Twitter. And if your friend wants a POS system and not just a way to accept credit cards, Square has a product for that, using an iPad as the interface. There are also products from other companies that are also iPad-based.
They also have a little card reader for cards with chips in them that works on bluetooth.
No physical connection required.
Yeah, it’ll definitely be the iPad sort of solution for this place.
Thanks!
My wife is doing a book reading today, in Half Price Books, and is going to see if she can sell some of hers, since the store does not deal in new books. She got a free one, and we tried it out yesterday. Very simple. It even stores transactions if you are off line.
Since she is not going to sell a lot personally, a free reader was good.
Their rate is pretty good, actually. I know a lot of vendors at SF find use them: they can take credit cards without a phone line.
I got one for personal use. It works great - very easy to swipe the cards. Since I only use it rarely, it’s great not having to pay monthly fee.
A lot of local taxi cab drivers use them despite having credit card machines built into their cabs. The cab owners charge the drivers 5% for processing credit cards plus they make them wait to get their money and go down to a really inconvenient location in person to collect. Square only charges 2.75% and promptly electronically transfers the funds to the drivers’ accounts.
On the other hand, a lot of customers, especially younger one, get all bent out of shape if the driver wants to do this. They accuse the driver of wanting to rip them off somehow. (I mean on the rare occasions that younger customers find themselves in a taxi rather than an Uber. They have no problem with Uber storing their credit card information and charging them as they will.)
So, using Square is a trade off. Use it at some sort of fair or special event and no one bats an eyelid. Use it where people are used to other kinds of devices and you are some sort of crook in their minds.
A taxi driver who might be trying to scam a tourist visa for weird payment methods? Color me shocked! What’s next, a taxi driver taking a detour to ring up the meter?
As discussed in this thread: https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=869687&highlight=credit+card, the merchant is on the short end of the stick when it comes to credit card fees. The upside to Square is that the 2.75 percent fee is a flat fee, no additional bank fees and may be lower depending on gross sales.
The lowest merchant fees I’ve seen even for companies that do millions of dollars in CC processing is ~2.3 percent. Understandable since the profit of the CC merchant is higher, so is the risk with the larger amounts.
That’s for the base / mag swipe reader. One needs to pay $49 for a chip card reader / tap & go / contactless payments) (like Google Pay) reader. There’s more liability for you, the merchant, if you swipe a chipped card instead of dipping it. You can also just use the app, at a slightly higher rate for card-not-present transactions (ie. phone orders.) if you don’t have the dongle with you or you take payment remotely.
I’ve had one for years, I’ll second the simple & easy.
So for the iPad solution he’d be looking at:
Equipment fee: $49?
Percentage: 2.75%
Is that right?