With Square, swipe your credit card and pay with your smartphone
Summary: A new service aims to encourage small businesses to accept digital transactions by allowing them to swipe credit cards using a smartphone.
A new service by the co-founder of Twitter aims to encourage small businesses to accept digital transactions by allowing them to swipe credit cards using a smartphone.
It's called Square, and it works with a one-two punch of a free mobile app (iPhone/iPod/iPad, Google Android) and a little plastic cube that plugs into the audio jack of your device.
The service turns anyone with a smartphone into a debit and credit card-accepting small business. So that time you wanted to sell your old gaming rig on Craigslist, but couldn't get someone to pay in cash? Square would fit the bill.
Want to know how it works? Head over to SmartPlanet's Smart Takes blog for the full scoop.
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Talkback
Square Credit Card App Not Worth the Hype
Square deposits the first $1000 but then holds the rest of your money for 30 days and deposits it in some illogical increment. So if you have a charge after that initial $1000 for example, on the 21st, you get some of it deposited 30 days later; if you had another charge on the 22nd, again, you get some of it 30 days later etc. You end up getting your money in small irregular increments which basically devalues your money.
Think of having $100 but getting it in pocket change as $1 on one day, $7 a few days later; $4 a week later and so on and so forth.
Plus if you do the math, their rates are high. You're better off with a monthly fee and lower rates.