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socal78

socal78

Well-known member
Does anyone have this card swiper thingy?https://squareup.com/

I AM SO EXCITED ABOUT THIS.

I just ordered one yesterday. It should be getting here soon. I don't know if you call it a "square" or a "square up". All I know is it allows you to accept a credit card. You plug in a little square thing into your phone. Swipe away. The customer signs and it will email or text them their receipt.

I first saw it when I met with my hairdresser for the first time. She had me pay her using this and I thought it was so cool. I decided to start accepting credit cards as well. In addition to the "pro bono" work I do, I'm also doing private English (ESL) tutoring. I would say this is a huge advantage! Most people who offer services only accept cash and check -- take an average handyman, for example. Even in the tutoring field, I haven't seen one other private tutor who takes plastic. It's an exciting tool.

I haven't read up thoroughly on it yet. I saw that it gets great reviews, though!

SquareInAction.png
 
my sisters husband just got his in the mail a week ago, we tried it and it works well...

we brought up a 3 issues when we were playing arnd with this, one was since iphones/androids still have a lot of bluetooth vulnerabilities (hacker in bluetooth range can easily take over ur phone as demonstrated during the most recent blackhat conference) its safest to always turn off bluetooth while using this... another is tethering (allowing other wifi devices to use ur phone as a router to link to the internet) which also opens up access to ur phone for potential hijacking too (similar concept to, but not as bad or vulnerable as the bluetoothing holes), so make sure u have that off too while using this... third one is since this relates to sensitive cash transactions AND the software is first gen (first gen software technology usually have the most holes) we thought it wise to wait until 2nd gen (version 2 at least for the software portion of this) to really use it, that way allows the developers to patch up any holes after 5-6 months of actual user/customer field testing (since 3 months is usually the normal time frame for software companies to go through a true project cycle for patches, add 1-2 months for potential delays to be safe)
 
Cool, I'll have to look into that. I was watching a segment on a morning show about those phones that can "kiss" to transfer money (you guys would know what it's called - I don't remember) and how vulnerable that is to crooks. The kind where you put them screen-to-screen and touch. I don't use bluetooth, so hopefully that will help mitigate some concern.
 
yeah i think i know what ur talking about... some paypal 2.0... i think i saw a commercial on it the other day...

thing with that is what gets transfered is ur paypal account data which actually helps mitigate some of the risk since the account is a buffer to the actual credit card number info whereas the squareup transfers the actual credit card info... if that makes any sense... im not sure how it works in the event where one phone DOESNT have a paypal account and just uses their raw credit card info or if paypal 2.0 even allows that scenario as a possibility or if they force everybody to get paypal accnts...

this definitely is an interesting trend to follow though haha
 
Square has actually been at this for a while... I think their iOS app is version 2.x.x.

What's good about Square is you don't need to set up your own merchant account to do the credit car transactions... this was usually the fumbling point for most small businesses as it required either one from your bank or a 3rd party merchant account. The portable scanning device also differentiated itself from services like PayPal so even mobile services like food trucks or mobile car wash services can use it (my car wash service at work uses it and I like it because it emails you a copy of your receipt).

Square claims the 2.75% per swipe charge is less than the total fees for a merchant accounts (merchant accounts typically charge a monthly "reporting" fee, a per swipe charge AND a percentage of sales charge). They even have a business account that charges $275 per month with 0% charges (so your breakpoint is $10k sales per month).

Starbucks is now using Square as their credit card processor and if you've ever eaten at Pain du Monde at Fashion Island, they also use Square I believe (they use an iPad point of sale system where you sign on the iPad).

I think it's great for small businesses and entrepreneurs as there is no monthly cost in the lower tier plan and now you enable yourself to process credit card transactions which many people want. For example, I went to an event over the weekend and they were charging for parking but only took cash... this is something that Square could help with.

As for security, they are using the latest encryption techniques and none of the credit card information is stored on the client device:
https://help.squareup.com/customer/portal/articles/7764

If I were to start up a small business... I would probably go with Square over a traditional merchant credit card account service (probably using a cheap Galaxy Player device as a standalone credit card machine). I do like how it interfaces with your 3.5mm mic/headphone jack so it's device agnostic.
 
irvinehomeowner said:
Starbucks is now using Square as their credit card processor and if you've ever eaten at Pain du Monde at Fashion Island, they also use Square I believe (they use an iPad point of sale system where you sign on the iPad).
Click to expand...

That's cool. I didn't know they use Square. Yeah, Square offers "Square Register" for the Ipad.

Btw, what do I call it if someone asks me? Square or Square Up?
 
The company is called Square (their Wiki page says because the swiper device is square and it's a play on the term "Are we square?" as in all paid up).
 
i used to use a pretty cheap marchant accnt 2 years ago (was like 10 dollar monthly fee and 120 bucks annual maintenance fee)... i just used their web portal mostly but yeah... the merchant accnts were a hastle for sure, but wasnt as expensive as u mentioned

i guess im a bit conservative when it comes to money... like i found out my client was using this thing from chase where u take a picture of a check with ur phone and it automatically does the bank transaction... i dunno... i felt vulnerable with my bank aba and routing number saved as a image and my signature in someones cell phone floating around... but oh well, i didnt mention it to him...  but i guess its worth the convenience
 
IHO, you mentioned this Square app is version 2.x.x. Does anyone know if anything existed before Square's V 1.0 to allow a non-merchant to accept plastic?
 
world chaos said:
i used to use a pretty cheap marchant accnt 2 years ago (was like 10 dollar monthly fee and 120 bucks annual maintenance fee)... i just used their web portal mostly but yeah... the merchant accnts were a hastle for sure, but wasnt as expensive as u mentioned

i guess im a bit conservative when it comes to money... like i found out my client was using this thing from chase where u take a picture of a check with ur phone and it automatically does the bank transaction... i dunno... i felt vulnerable with my bank aba and routing number saved as a image and my signature in someones cell phone floating around... but oh well, i didnt mention it to him...  but i guess its worth the convenience
Click to expand...
Yeah... I'm not down with those photo check deposit apps... that's just calling for identity theft (not only your bank info but you have your address info on there too).

Square is more secure as it encrypts from the swipe to the server.

As for the comparison to merchant account fees... I think there is a case for small businesses who don't often process credit cards even using your example. $10/mo but $120/year is $20/mo minimum excluding your swipe fee and sales percentage. If you have zero credit cards sales in the month, you still pay $20... and even if you have up to $700 of credit card sales in a month, you are paying less than $20... so that's where Square has an advantage. Plus the straight percentage fee is useful for those small amount transaction. The reason why so many business use those "Minimum $5 (or $10) for Credit Card" signs (which are illegal by the way, you are not supposed to have a limit to allow CC transactions) is because the merchant account charges a 10-15 cent per swipe fee on top of the percentage so a $2.00 transaction ends up being 5% or more in swipe fees.
 
SoCal said:
IHO, you mentioned this Square app is version 2.x.x. Does anyone know if anything existed before Square's V 1.0 to allow a non-merchant to accept plastic?
Click to expand...
I used PayPal.

But I needed a computer to enter in the CC information and print a receipt.
 
irvinehomeowner said:
SoCal said:
IHO, you mentioned this Square app is version 2.x.x. Does anyone know if anything existed before Square's V 1.0 to allow a non-merchant to accept plastic?
Click to expand...
I used PayPal.

But I needed a computer to enter in the CC information and print a receipt.
Click to expand...

Oh, yeah. PayPal. Such a hassle because the customer also needs an account so they can pay, if I recall.
 
SoCal said:
irvinehomeowner said:
SoCal said:
IHO, you mentioned this Square app is version 2.x.x. Does anyone know if anything existed before Square's V 1.0 to allow a non-merchant to accept plastic?
Click to expand...
I used PayPal.

But I needed a computer to enter in the CC information and print a receipt.
Click to expand...

Oh, yeah. PayPal. Such a hassle because the customer also needs an account so they can pay, if I recall.
Click to expand...
There was a credit card merchant account option for PayPal accounts that allowed you to process physical plastic without the buyer having to have their own PayPal account.

A web portal allowed you to enter in their credit card account, amount etc and then it would authorize it and send you back a confirmation... kind of like when a swiper can't read your mag stripe and you have to manually enter in the information.

But PayPal charged me a monthly fee and a per transaction percentage... which makes Square a better (and more convenient) option today. If Square was around before (I'm talking mid 2000s), I would have used them instead.
 
SoCal said:
I wonder why it costs more to manually enter a CC# on Square than it does to swipe.
Click to expand...
That's typical for all CC transactions... entering in a CC# is more susceptible to fraud because that's usually phone or internet orders instead of in-person sales where the actual physical card can be verified with the owner via ID.

It's also why credit cards now have that security code on the back to further verify the existence of the physical card.
 
Thanks, once again, Iho-pedia!

It seems there would be times when additional charges presenting the true card would be warranted. Example: Self checkouts. A couple Mexican guys broke into my parent's car and stole my mom's purse & CCs which have her picture on the back. If anyone bothered to check, they'd see the photo is of someone of a different age, gender, and race. They made off with hundreds of dollars of merchandise at Home Depot's self checkout then thousands elsewhere.

Similarly, I worked retail for years. Sometimes, the customer would give me his well-used card with a faulty magnetic strip and I would be forced to manually enter it although he authorized his own purchase. That sucks if the store owner has to dish out extra for that. I say "he" because it's always men. They put the card in their billfold in the back pocket and sit on it. It takes much more abuse than one carried in a woman's purse.
 
cmu report on paypal 2.0 "bump" technology and their vulnerabilities... much of it is theory, but they also tried to hack too... says the succeeded 60-70% of the time to steal cc info or something like thathttp://www.cylab.cmu.edu/files/pdfs/tech_reports/CMUCyLab11011.pdf

this ones about 2 vulnerabilities on the square... released in 2011 so im sure theyve done their best to address it so far...http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/are_the_new_square_hacks_a_real_concern.php

just good info to know... i know im a bit over conscious (probably as a result of being in software security b4 during my younger years)... my point is not to scare ppl into to not using ANY technology at all... but rather, to me, an educated + vulnerable "user" is already 99.9% more "safe" than just any regular user... if that makes any sense...
 
My Square arrived yesterday. It's so cute and tiny and square. It's white and perfectly matches my phone. * Squeal*
 
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