Today, I did a little research on mobile credit card processing. To my surprise, there were several companies that already offer inexpensive credit card processing and card readers.
I was expecting to find merchants charging a fee of around $20 a month plus charging either a rental fee for equipment or $50 to $100 for the equipment. Again, I was surprised that there is no monthly charges for these services and that these companies are offering free Android and iOS phone card readers. In this article, I'll be talking about three companies: PayPal Here, SquareUp and PayAnywhere. All of these companies offer their services for a fee per transaction. Yes, that fee is higher than you could negotiate with a merchant if you have a high volume of transaction, but for the person who wants to charge credit cards at a garage sale, or at one to two events a year with an occasional mobile transaction here or there, these three companies will fit the bill. Unless you have a high volume of monthly mobile credit card swipe transactions, these services are for you. I have recently signed up for all three services, below is a basic explanation of each service. I will write about my experience with them individually at a later date after I have tried them out.
PayPal Here
PayPal Here is being offered by PayPal in conjunction with their other services. I suspect that this will be a popular option as many online merchants either use paypal or paypal pro for their online transations and adding mobile will be just one more way to tie into the same account. This is a huge advantage for PayPal over it's competitors.
UPDATE: I received my PayPal Here card reader and could not be happier with it. As expected, the funds go directly back into my PayPal account. The other nice thing that I didn't expect is that PayPal here accepts checks (though only in the U.S.). Overall, my choice of the available card readers is PayPal Here with PayAnywhere being a close second.
SquareUp.com
One of the first companies I looked at is Square. Square offeres a quick 2 minute sign up and sends you your card reader for free (you pay for shipping). The fee for square is 2.75% of each transaction swipped and 3.5% for each manually entered transaction. Of all of the companies i looked at, Square had the most negative comments for their card reader (people saying it didn't scan well). Many have said that the reader did not work on thier phone. I expect to get my reader within a couple days and will test it out. Once I test out the card reader, I will give my own critique about how well it works.
One nice thing about Square is the complimentary app called "Pay with Square". This app allows you to search for merchants that accept Square and you can start a tab before you walk in. This means you can go to the merchant and not have to bring your wallet. You simply pay with the card that is attached to your square account. While I expect others will have this feature eventually, Square is out ahead of the game by having it available and having merchants starting to use it. By doing a quick search, there were 4 restaurants right near my office in Chicago, and over a dozen within a 1.5 mile radius. That's pretty good considering they are the only company I found with this option currently.
PayAnywhere.com
The final company I looked at is PayAnywhere. PayAnywhere has a nice app that was easy to use and account opening took less than 5 minutes. The PayAnywhere fees are less expensive at 2.69% for swipped transactions and the same 3.5% for manual transactions. Of all the readers, the PayAnywhere card reader looks like it is the best option as far as a physical device. I ran a quick test with a manual transaction and the features of PayAnywhere are nice. The email receipt feature was nice as the receipt included my logo and looked very professional. I'm expecting my card reader by the end of the week and will update when I have it.
Overall, I'm excited at the possibility for anyone to accept credit card on the spot. This will make life much easier on small merchants like landscapers, lawyers, artists and more small business professionals that see clients face to face and want to accept credit card on the spot. Imagine being a landscaper and being able to take a payment on the spot before you start working via credit card. Or being at a trade show and the only additional equipment you need is a small card reader and your phone. There are a ton of scenarios where this type of technology will benefit small businesses and individuals all over the country (these services are primarily US only services).