Blast From The Past - Square Trumps Paypal For Credit Card Processing

Hi gang! Here's another "Blast From The Past" post that I think small business owners and entrepreneurs will find very useful. It's about the Square Card, a revolutionary device that you can use with a smartphone to process credit cards. Check out the post, and give this a serious look if you are a local small business owner or traveling vendor!

SQUARE REVOLUTIONIZES CREDIT CARD PROCESSING FOR THE “LITTLE GUY”

I can’t tell you how excited I am about Square, the company who came up with something more valuable to me than my beloved Paypal account.

Square is a new service that actually allows me to turn my iPhone into a mobile credit card terminal. I downloaded the Square app for free, and next I’ll wait for my Square credit card reader to arrive in the mail. It plugs into the audio jack of my iPhone. Combined with the free app, I’ll be able to enter in a transaction amount, swipe a person’s credit card, and immediately have money transferred straight into my bank account.

Years ago, I was very excited to have a “Premier” Paypal account and the Paypal Debit Card. This revolutionized my small business. I could sell an item on eBay or my website, and after receiving the payment electronically, I could then immediately withdraw that money using my Paypal debit card at any ATM. The only drawback was paying a transaction fee on top of an ATM fee. But this mean immediate access to my money when I made a sale.

The only frustrating thing about Paypal was the inability to accept a credit card without setting up a “buy-it-now” or “add-to-cart” button on my website. To solve that problem, I upgraded to the Virtual Terminal account. It allowed me to type in the credit card account number and a transaction amount. After using it for a few months, I dropped it because I couldn’t justify the cost.

Now Square has hit the scene, and it fills a huge gap perfectly. Sure, I’ll still have use for my Paypal account and its ability to make website transactions happen, but nothing will beat the convenience of accepting credit cards on the spot wherever I have cell phone reception. This is going to open up doors of opportunity for me like never before.

When I owned 2 retail establishments, I considered hiring a traveling salesperson to sell some of my products. But to have a mobile credit card terminal, I would have had to spend several hundred dollars on equipment plus $40 a month for the subscription to the service. That doesn’t even include the regular transaction fees. That puts mobile credit card acceptance out of reach for most small and independent business owners.

With Square, the playing field has been leveled. Now anyone can enter the game, even if they don’t have good credit. This is definitely going to make a lot of “little guys” excited, and expand their possibilities. Can you imagine how useful this would be even for the smallest garage sale entrepreneur?

Carlton Flowers
Hustler/Entrepreneur