Hi all,
Anybody have experience with the new “Square” application for taking
credit cards via your phone?
Karen
I signed up for this option last May. I have never gotten my “slider”
(which was supposed to be shipped “any day”) in early summer. It was
also posted on a forum that the limit for a transaction was $100 and
a weekly limit of $700. This would make it useless for someone who
only takes credit card sales at 4/5 shows a year. Even in a bad
economy I’d hit the limit on a Saturday of a show and the per
transaction limit several times in a day. It was suggested that you
could get around the transaction limit by “splitting” the sale. I
think that would make a customer suspicious at best and could cost a
sale at worst. On paper, this looks like a good idea but it isn’t
working-at least for me.
Mickey
Square took a break from shipping swipers for several months while
they worked out their underwriting to be able to eliminate those low
minimums. I requested a swiper last October and only just got mine a
few weeks ago; I haven’t had a chance to try it out yet, but will
report back once I do.
I think Square has good potential for those of us who do only a few
shows a year and sell at the lower price points. One limitation is
that you have to have good cell reception at the venue to be able to
use it; that is not always the case with the shows I do. For that
reason, Square (or any other credit card system that requires a live
connection) will never be able to entirely replace my Propay account
and manual imprinter.
Lori Paximadis
Mickey… I signed up for mine in June and received it a couple of
weeks ago. When I looked into it in September I discovered I need to
do a few extra steps (things had changed) and would probably have
received it sooner if I had checked earlier. The transaction limit
has changed completely too so check it out!
I did a cost comparison with my regular merchant services provider
and Square beat it hands down even with a slightly higher percentage
taken.
I used it for the first time last weekend and love it!
Sadie
(Happy Square user)
Square has had difficulty meeting demand for “Silders” and it can
take several months to receive one. There is, however, no daily or
per-transaction limit on card processing; the sole limit their
website mentions is that they can only transfer $1000/ week to your
linked bank account. Square’s card processing fees aRe: 2.75% + 15c
for swiped transactions or 3.5% + 15c for keyed-in transactions.
There are no activation, gateway, monthly, early termination, or
hidden fees and the slider is totally free. I havent had the chance
to extensively try this out yet, but I’m really excited about the
potential of this device+software and I encourage you to check out
their website for yourself. About Square Faq here:
http://support.squareup.com/home
Art is the only serious thing in the world. And the artist is the
only person who is never serious. - Oscar Wilde
I wouldn’t throw this baby out with the bathwater because of a rocky
start. The company got a huge bump of enthusiasm because of a review
from David Pogue of the New York Times and I know they were swamped.
Their original parameters have changed since the beginning. I
checked a couple of weeks ago on behalf of my hair dresser and found
that the amounts you can bill are going up all the time ($1000 last I
saw and I believe they said much more to come). The system currently
works on Apple iPhone, iTouch and Android phones. The square is free
and yes, they’ve had trouble with fulfillment, but blame that on
unexpected popularity. No contracts, no minimum number of uses per
year… the current fee for use for the user is 2.75% if used via the
scanning square, or 3.75% if punched in by hand. Receipts are
e-mailed and it appears to meet most users needs. The biggest
negative I’ve seen so far is that like most card scanners, multple
swipes are sometimes needed. Google Square Up or Square and get the
scoop.
Chris
i’m going to chime in on the last part - having had 2 wireless cc
units, one of which i need to sell now, i RARELY had to swipe a card
even twice to get a read. i have encountered a few cards over the
years of doing retail shows that just couldn’t be read but the norm
is 1 swipe with a good machine. if you are busy at a show, having to
swipe a customer’s card multiple times constantly a) slows down
checking out a customer and b) gives an air of unreliability of the
hardware to the customer. D