Traders can now consider an alternative to the big banks and PayPal. Square is a small business debit/credit card facility that
operates from mobile phones. It has been around for a while but recently opened
an Australian office and has become more active in the field.
Square was one of the early adopters of a credit card reader
than plugs into the audio port of a smart phone and enables small businesses
including market traders to accept card payments for goods. The device will handle
card strips or chip’n’pin processes and manual card number entries can also be
made. For certain transactions under $35 you can also skip the need for a PIN.
According to the Square website the standard fee is 1.9% of
the value of the transaction and there are no long term contracts to sign. The
reader itself costs $19 and the software can be downloaded as a free app from
the Apple and Android stores.
If you wish to find out more go to the Square website for
more detail and look out for news of a workshop to be held at Federation Square
on 11th April - details in the Trader Bulletin.