The reason small business don’t use credit is simple-it doesn’t make sense for them to do so financially. Square, on their site, states the following facts for why it is beneficial for small businesses and individuals to use:
Features | Square | Others |
---|---|---|
Merchant account required | None | Yes |
Contract required | None | 1-2 years |
Mobile card reader | Free | $150-$900 |
Setup | Free | $0-$50 |
Monthly fee | None | $15-$25 |
Monthly minimum | None | $25 |
Card-present (swiped) rate | 2.75% + 15¢ | 2.9% + 30¢ |
Card-not-present (keyed-in) rate | 3.5% + 15¢ | 2.9% + 30¢ |
As you can see, Square is a fee-per-transaction service, making it risk free. Use it when and if you want, but if you have a slow month or decide not to use it, you won’t be stuck in a contract. Everything sounds fantastic, right? Well, no. Before you all head to the site to sign up, I want to tell you about my experience with Square. I signed up on the site 2 weeks ago. Everything went well, including the verification of my bank account. Well almost everything. Square cannot authorize me to accept credit transactions because they can’t verify my identity and will not ship me a reader. When this came up I promptly contacted support and was told my activation request would reset in 72 hours. Cool, no problem, these things happen and I want them to be sure I am actually me and not someone pretending to be me. 72 hours passed and nothing. More than 72 hours passed and still nothing. I contacted support again and was told they would contact me when and if my account could be reset. Wait, what? Last week it was 72 hours and now it may not be reset at all? Luckily, I am just getting the device to review it and for personal use, but what if I had been a small business banking on the verification going through? Not only would I have been denied but then I may or may not ever be allowed to get a reader. That is not cool. I know that Square has been around for less than a year but with delayed shipments of readers and not being able to verify identities, as well as iPhone 4 issues, they have had quite a rough year. I will say that even though I got snippy with the poor support guy, it was the last thing I needed after working 3 days with no sleep, he was nothing but courteous to me. So sorry support guy, I apologize for my attitude. In closing, I rarely get excited about companies but I am excited to see where Square will take us once they have fixed all their kinks.
Square will be used at Taste of St. Louis this weekend! Check it out and take your credit card so you can see it in action.
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