Posted by The Blogging Desk on Tue, Apr 19, 2011
- by Jon, "Pretty Boy", Pentecost
Now you can accept credit cards on your iPhone 4, iPod touch (4th generation), or iPad, according to this website. Simply attach the card reader to your device, download the free Square app, complete the online sign-up, and you are ready to accept transactions.
The website indicates that signing up is easy and there are no contracts or other items to worry about. Every time you swipe, there is a 2.75% transaction fee from Square and that is it. Sounds pretty simple to me – no complex contracts to worry about or bills you have to pay ahead of time. Just buy the $9.95 device ($10 redemption code is currently included – that means they pay you a nickel to get it!!), put in some info, and you are all set.
Now come the big questions – do you think this would be worth it for everyone? Obviously for some merchants, it isn’t because the fees that they are charged per transaction are much less (can you imagine scanning to an iPad in Walmart??). What about security – would you feel safe entering your PIN number on an iPhone that a street vendor is selling T-shirts from? Are the transactions all sent immediately through a WiFi connection or are they stored on the device until a secure connection can be made?
Depending on the situation, this would be great to have, as you can now start having the average start-up company able to use credit cards before they get really established and pay to get their service setup. It also will make life easier for those that have a mobile force for being able to add credit card services available (ever get stuck on the side of the road and need AAA?). I personally think this is a great tool and is great in a number of situations and the security potential risks are greatly outweighed by the benefits.
