Credit Cards The Square

Anyone accept Credit Cards by using the Square?
I am only interested in this method.
If you do use the Square how is it working out for you?
Do you also accept by entering the number and pay more for the service.
I know a swipe is 2.75% per swipe and the manual method is more.
Has anyone required you to have security for the numbers you accept?
I ask these questions because our current card company now wants us to have all kinds of
protection for numbers.
Thanks in advance for any info on this matter.
Don LaFountain

I use it and have had no trouble. We swipe or enter depending on whether the customer is available. Payment is fast and I can enter a note or take a picture to attach to invoice that's emailed directly to customers email or texted to their phone. Another plan may be cheaper but for no more than I use it I'm happy.

Works great..... Reccomend them over any of the rest!

I use it too. For manual entry I think it is 2.99% plus .15c per transaction.

I've used Squareup for a couple of years with no problems. A few days ago I downloaded the PayPal Here app (PPH) and am waiting on the card reader. PPH is a bit cheaper at 2.7%, gives you instant access to your money, bank transfers are down to two business days and there is a suite of other services that work with it including invoicing. I like the ability to set up "items" with a fixed price which Square can't do with Android but I like that Square can include a pic with the transaction. I'm going to use PPH for awhile and then I'll give a review. Likewise there may be someone already using it that will give their opinion.

www.paypal.com/here

https://www.paypal.com/webapps/mpp/paypal-payments-advanced#ccCalloutDesc

Don,

We use it too, 2 years now, no issues though as mike mentioned paypal is good too, we use it for the non profit project we have going and again, no issues.

We have the iphone/ipad setups so we can do the itemized and photo categories for purchases for folks.

ie. standard gopher control = $X.00

All of these will email or text and invoice/receipt to your client and work nicely. I've used them at booths and all over, the one caveat is that if you have a large portion of your area isn't covered with cell phone coverage then you may be doing more manual entry and may want to use that fee as a standard to compare products.

Nate and a few others have talked about how they use it where cell reception isn't great or doesn't exist.

Justin

Thank you all for this info. All good stuff and very helpful.
One more question
Is there a limit on how much you can accept per swipe? Say a good job for a couple thousand dollars, has anyone had a problems with large amounts?

I am looking at this for another business I do. Hot Air Ballooning.
See my web site.
www.mistyriverballooning.com

I took a $1400 payment yesterday and it posted today in my bank account.

I hear Sam's Club has a deal similar to the square. You get a Sam's Club membership with it, which could be handy for getting the big bags of cheeze puffs for cheap. Don't know anything else about it yet though.

Don,

Commercial bird jobs I move taken square for 2-4k no problems.

Don,

Square has an initial limit of $2,100 per day in charges for manual entry with no limit on card swipe charges. If you exceed the limit then they hold the "extra" for 30 days before releasing it. To increase your limit you need to provide them with your business license and other information. I had my daily limit raised to $5,000 within 24 hours of giving them the extra information.

As for usage, I don't recommend it with Android phones as you have to type in the information for each charge every time you do it. I run mine through an iPad with the Square Register. This option also has the ability to hook up a thermal printer if desired to print receipts. What's nice with the iPad is that I can make categories and have preentered items so that all I need to do is open the correct category then select the charge I want. Square automatically does the math with multiple charges and gives a line item breakdown.

For processing charges, you can either use the card reader on your phone/iPad or you can manually enter them. The rate for swiping is 2.75% while manual entry is 3.5% with a .15 cent per transaction charge. While these might seem like big charges, they are well within normal rates and best of all there are no minimums you have to meet nor do you have different rates for Discover or AMEX. The authorization code is located on the signature screen to the right under the line and is real small making it difficult to read if you're trying to record it for your records so be prepared. When doing manual entry you should write Phone or Internet or some other reference on the signature line instead of leaving it blank. This gives you something to fight with should there be a contesting of the charges. Of course, when the client is present have them sign with their finger or a stylus. Receipts can be sent via text message or email to the client (and with register printed).

What you need to be most concerned about through is keeping very good records of your charges. Square does not provide you the name of the person who was charged, breakdown of services, nor does it show their email address (this is why you don't have to do all the compliance crap with them you have to do with others). Rather, all you get is an email stating you took XXX dollars in payment from card ending in XXXX on this date. This has been an issue when we've had to reissue receipts (which can be done for up to 60 days) and had processed several identical charges on the same day.

Another issue to look at is Canadian credit cards. They may have updated the software for the Androids, but when I was using it that way you couldn't put in the alphanumeric zip codes manually. They did update the software for that with the Square Register so that is no longer an issue we have and they always did allow processing of Canadian cards when using the card reader.

All things considered and with experience dealing with multiple other merchant accounts I highly recommend the square provided you understand its limitations and what you need to do for your business to make it work well.

Eric thanks for the excellent info. You answered all my questions. Justin and all thanks for all your info.
Excellent
Don LaFountain

Can they be set up to use on a laptop computer?

I'm not aware of Square being able to be used on a windows style computer, but Square Register may run on an Apple based system since it runs on iPads (it needs run on a system that runs apps and not necessarily programs).

I do believe PayPal has a solution for windows based computers. Just remember that you will always pay a higher discount rate for Internet transactions since they are considered unsecured versus having a card reader where you can swipe the card's magnetic strip.

OK, as mentioned in my previous post I had requested the PayPal card reader to see if I liked it better than Square. I also signed up for PayPal Payments Advanced to try it out for awhile. The results are in: After using both, Square is definitely simpler and faster at getting MY money into the bank. PayPal Here has some good features but is much slower and the reader is finicky requiring multiple swipes at times. I was approved for PayPal Advanced Payments (to add a more seamless online payment page) but they wanted to do a 30 day holdback on all funds/payments - meaning on day 31 I get payments from day 1. Hmmm... they get to draw interest on MY money? NOT. After 15 years with PayPal I didn't expect this so I promptly called them, spoke my mind and cancelled the PayPal Advanced service.

FYI - Per the updated PayPal policy: "5.1 Balances. You do not need to maintain a Balance in your Account in order to make or receive payments. If you do hold a Balance, that Balance represents an unsecured claim against PayPal and is not insured by the FDIC. PayPal will combine your Balance with the Balances of other Users and will invest those funds in liquid investments in accordance with State money transmitter laws. PayPal will own the interest or other earnings on pooled Balances. PayPal will hold pooled Balances separate from its corporate funds and will not use Balances for its operating expenses or for any other corporate purposes. PayPal will not voluntarily make Balances available to its creditors in the event of bankruptcy. In addition, the issuer of the PayPal Debit Card, which is The Bancorp Bank, holds debit card customer balances in a pooled account held in the debit card issuer’s name for the benefit of PayPal debit card users."

I recently read an article that stated that PayPal had around 100 million ACTIVE accounts with many having balances in the tens of thousands of dollars. I believe it said that it was estimated that there was 750 million to over a billion dollars in the pooled funds. It went on to say that eBay was losing money and that PayPal lost a lot of money in "investments" over the last four years and were now doing hold backs to acquire interest on these pooled funds.

So is anyone encountering any hold backs through PayPal?

I always liked Paypal's layout better, but the last few updates have made square as good or better.

Individual items being the improvement I liked.