Process Credit Card payments from the iPhone
Process Credit Card payments from the iPhone
Square iPhone Payment System service provides a white dongle for your iPhone or iPod Touch that lets you pay without a credit card. The innovation is in a small, plastic card reader that fits in to the headphone jack of an iPhone (or iPod Touch) and transfers the credit card’s swipe data to the app. The hardware is a magnetic stripe reader that attaches to the iPhone’s headphone jack and a nifty and hopefully secure piece of software called ‘SquareUp’ which runs on your phone. The combination of the two allows an employee to enter the amount of a charge, capture the customer’s signature, enter an email address and then process the transaction. After the employee enters the amount to charge, the customer confirms by scrawling their signature with their finger and then either one enters the customer’s email address to send the receipt to. The payment is processed by Square for a small percentage plus a fixed fee; the funds are transferred directly to the store’s bank account, cutting both time and complexity on the processing side. The customer’s receipt includes a map showing the location of the transaction which is handy for those who record, sort and file such things. SquareUp plan generate their revenue from this venture as transaction fees. For each transaction processed SquareUp will charge a percentage, very similar to the way Visa and Mastercard charge a percentage to merchants. The big difference here is that by having your own iPhone and purchasing the relatively cheap card reader attachment, smaller businesses can reduce overhead that they’d normally endure when purchasing or renting full POS systems.
Filed Under: Accessories • iPhone
