May be of value so passing along
 

You guys hear about Square? squareup.com

It's actually a pretty cool solution.

For the average Joe accepting credit cards is a pretty big deal/hassle that's not worth it. All sorts of credit checks, personal guarantees, merchant accounts yada yada.

Square will send you a dongle for your iOS or Android device that allows you to swipe cards from your smart phone/tablet.

The rates are pretty good, 2.75% and no transaction fee on a swipe. Limit is $1,000 in transactions to start. If you link to a bank account they pay out daily.

One of my guys just got it. He also just moved in with his GF. She says to him, "i'll pay my half of the rent on my CC so I get miles."

If one of your buds owes you money and has no cash but does have a card there goes his excuse.

Out at dinner with other couples and the bill gets split multiple ways on multiple cards you can use it to swipe theirs, pay on yours and collect whatever points you normally get.

Just signed up my wife for a dongle for her jewelry business.

will it work with a mail order non swipe?

Yes.

You can manually key in but the rate goes to $0.15 per transaction and 3.5%. It'll cost you roughly $1 on a $25 transaction.

Card not present (MOTO) transactions have an inherently higher risk for CC providers.

Not terrible as new MOTO, transaction accounts will hit you for $0.15 to $0.25 per transaction and anywhere from 1.5% to 2.5% per transaction from most traditional solutions.

If you are doing low volume it's worth it. If you have high volume you can certainly negotiate a better rate with one of the traditional providers.

I think the service fills a void.

Looks pretty cool. We're slowly catching up to the Europeans who have had portable (I think it used cell) units.

pretty slick, but no printed receipt.

Apple stores do it and email you a receipt within minutes.

Paperless economy based on debt. That's where we're being pushed.

They use the hand held swipe machines everywhere in Europe and you have to go inside to pay at gas stations. But be careful with that. My wife's MC got double swiped or at least swiped into a personal machine at a restaurant near Duesseldorf last year. Just happened to be our last night there, so it was easy to prove we didn't rack up a few grand in furniture purchases in Poland the following day.

Yeah, I thought about that, but it's not all that slick until the customer's email address is ubiquitously linked to the card. (who want's to type a bunch of customers email addresses into a phone? --that is not a transaction time-saver)

Stella & Dot?

Wife is doing that. Not sure that I would want to pay 2.75% when I can just deposit a check and pay with my own CC though.

We'll look into it though.

I'm actually surprised PayPal hasn't tried more things like this. You've been able to send money with your phone for many years now, but it's never really caught on or progressed despite the fact that so many people have paypal accounts.

I suppose the ebay cash cow has made them complacent.

Really Glen?

In a typical retail scenario what is the percentage of personnel manning then registers?

Turning EVERY staff member into a checkout point is a huge timesaver.

Wife makes her own stuff that she sells locally.

The transaction would be her getting paid by the customer.

Every merchant hates cc fees but .70 on a $25 transaction is better than no transaction.