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No but the phone will send it to there E-mail, And the good thing about is you build a e-mail base. So then you can send your customer a e-mail on any special you have that month, and they can forward the e-mail to
family and friend. And the money will get to your account faster.Square Application for smartphones. I was turned onto this by a customer. If you have a smartphone, you probably have this app in your menu. It is from a company called Square. No monthly fees, just a 2.75 percent charge or something close. If you check the application, it is a mini credit card processor which they send to you for free. It plugs right into the headphone jack of your smartphone. You have to enroll: add your bank account and other info. They mail it to you for free, no charge at all. When you are enrolled, they need to verify your bank account. They will put into your account, a couple of very small deposits that add up to about 25 cents total. They then withdraw this from your account to make sure all is working. I used it once, a $134.00 job, which after fees I got $130.00 wired into my account. Depending on your bank it’s a bout 1 to 2 days. Mine was in the account two days later. The person who told me about this app said he has used it for about half a year and he loves it. No setup fees, no monthly fees. Anybody out there have any comments or feedback from using this ? 🙁
I think using a smart phone would be nice for Credit cards. Unfortunately, I see two potential problems. First, as a business owner, if you have employees, are you buying a smart phone for them to use? Or are they using their personal smart phone if they have a smart phone? How secure is this info once it is ran through the smart phone? Can they access it at a later date on their own? If you don’t have employees, then you can disregard that problem. My second concern would be as a consumer/customer. How safe would you feel having a business/person swipe your card and it is processed through the person’s cell phone? I think people’s regular/repeat customers may not have an issue as they already have a relationship with you, but new customers may not be hip to that. Also, does the customer get a receipt (emailed or otherwise)?
I am by no means against using smart phones for credit card processing, but rather am just playing devil’s advocate here and giving some food for thought. A dedicated credit card reader gives a strong professional image, and I have no complaints with the service/reader we use (Merchant Services). Just my 2 cents.
Using Smart Phones for credit card processing is NOT a secure means of processing customer information. Additionally, a receipt you can hand to the customer at the time of the transaction does not print. I think one risks damage to their repuatation until companies like Payware Mobile and other smart phone processors can secure the customer information. Just saying…
Yes ! You ate right about the inability ot print a receipt. But the way I look at it
, we can send them an e-mail receipt. It isn’t any different
Than having someone back at the office taking
The info over the phone. Toucan carry the machine
With you but not all customers have land line.
So they still won’t get a receipt. To use the machine
With a cellphone cost too much. If you have
Multiple vans to carry multiple machines would be
To expensive.
So as I see it, your tech still has to call
You/ your office with the customer card
Number or bring in the invoice with the card
Number written on them and the office
Will still have to send the customer their receipt
by mail. With the Smart phone you can
Process from it. Your other employees
Can call you with their information and
you can process the cards.P.S. This will work for some but maybe not for
all.
Mark,
Just an FYI, the credit card machine we get from Merchant Services is wireless (Made by Nurit, can’t remember model and don’t have machine with me as I type this), but can also be used via landline. Amazingly, I think it gets as good, if not better, wireless service than my cell phone (I have verizon). The only time I have issues getting a signal is when I’m up in a high rise building (usually 30+ floors up). Otherwise, it gets a great signal and I have been very impressed with the reliability of the machines. Overall they are pretty durable and I’ve only had to replace it once in the 3-5 yrs I’ve been using it (can’t remember when corporate first recommended them), and that was an employee’s fault, not the machines. They replaced it free of charge within a day or two. It does print a receipt on the spot that you have your customer sign for your records, plus another copy for them. Funds usually hit my account within 2-3 days. Anyone that hasn’t looked into them as an option, I highly recommend it,if not just to see what other options are out there.
Once again, I am not against cell phone’s. I do, however, think the hand held wireless card readers give a very professional appearance and are the way to go.
***This is re-posted from one of my earlier posts in another section.
Nothings cheap anymore. Especially credit card processing.
I use a company called Merchant Services. It’s monthly cost is just under $50 per month whether I process a credit card or not. It includes a portable terminal to process credit cards thru satellites that was included when I signed up. Some companies want up to $800 up front for the terminal. Just swipe the customers major credit or debit card and it prints them a receipt to sign and one for me. The terminal I use is the “Nurit 8000”. They have newer models now. My customers like the fact that the credit card or it’s numbers dosen’t leave there possession.
They also can process thru iphones but I’m not up to speed on that.
They have a credit card rate of 1.45%, a transaction fee of .18 cents, a monthly statement or service fee of $8 and an optional monthly maintenance fee of $9.50 per month. I have had to send my terminal back for repairs twice and it was covered under the last fee. They overnight the new terminal to me and gave me a UPS sticker to mail in the other terminal.
Is just under $50 a month plus the other transaction fee’s too expensive? Not to me it’s not. A majority of my competition does not take credit cards. I think it makes your business more professional to process credit cards. I also push my customers who are moving out of the area to use a credit card so I don’t have to deal with bad checks.
I usually process about 10 credit card transactions per month on average.
Hope this helps.
We are using Square exclusively now. We have had absolutely no problems with it. Would highly recommend it.
What do you love about “Square”?
What are the cost breakdowns? Monthly? And/or Transaction fee?
What equipment to buy?
Month or year commitments? How many?
Compatible with what phone?
Is the phone listed personal or business? Does it matter?Gordon-
Free card reader (which they mail to you at no charge). It’s a small swiper that attaches right your phone.
No contract agreements
No monthly fees
No minimum charge per month
absolutely no commitment what so ever
The money gets transfered straight to your bank account the next day
Fees:
2.75% when you manually swipe the card or 3.5% when you type the numbers in (taking a payment over the phone).
Doesn’t matter if phone is listed personal or business.
Only downside is that it’s only compatible with the iphone and select Andriod platform phones.
I believe there was an article in last months newletter regarding Square. I signed up today.
Here is another phone credit card swiper to try, Intuit GoPayment. Free app and card reader. Go to their website for more info: http://gopayment.com/
Looked at the Square Device. I will have to get an Android Phone but one question my cell phone carrier has. How much data is used per transaction? My plan limits me to 5GB. Anyone have problems with this?
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