Square begins taking preorders for new chip card readers for iPhone, iPad
As the U.S. credit card industry prepares for an upcoming switch to new cards with secure EMV chips, popular transaction provider Square is preparing to help retailers through the change, and is now accepting preorders for its new chip card-compatible readers.
Unlike the regular iPhone-compatible Square swipe accessory, which the company has made available for free, the new Square Reader for chip cards costs $29.
Another change: The new Square Reader requires charging. The accessory includes a micro USB port, so that retailers will be able to recharge the device and accept credit cards on the go. Square has said the new $29 reader "features the most powerful battery of its kind."
The reader includes a new slot where merchants can "dip" an EMV-compatible card, leaving it in place for the entire sale. The new secure method replaces the legacy, traditional method of swiping a card, though the new Square Reader also includes a magnetic strip reader for legacy support.
In addition, Square is also taking preorders for a new "Chip Card Accessory" for the Square Stand. The $39 accessory connects to the iPad stand with an included USB hardware hub.
A top-loading slot allows merchants to insert a customer's credit card and securely initiate a transaction. The EMV card reader pairs with the iPad in the stand and its accompanying legacy magnetic stripe reader. The standalone Square Stand sells for $99.
Both the Square Reader for chip cards and the Square Stand Chip Card Accessory are available for preorder now and are scheduled to ship in spring of 2015. That's well ahead of the October 2015 EMV mandate adopted by U.S. payment networks.
Unlike the regular iPhone-compatible Square swipe accessory, which the company has made available for free, the new Square Reader for chip cards costs $29.
Another change: The new Square Reader requires charging. The accessory includes a micro USB port, so that retailers will be able to recharge the device and accept credit cards on the go. Square has said the new $29 reader "features the most powerful battery of its kind."
The reader includes a new slot where merchants can "dip" an EMV-compatible card, leaving it in place for the entire sale. The new secure method replaces the legacy, traditional method of swiping a card, though the new Square Reader also includes a magnetic strip reader for legacy support.
In addition, Square is also taking preorders for a new "Chip Card Accessory" for the Square Stand. The $39 accessory connects to the iPad stand with an included USB hardware hub.
A top-loading slot allows merchants to insert a customer's credit card and securely initiate a transaction. The EMV card reader pairs with the iPad in the stand and its accompanying legacy magnetic stripe reader. The standalone Square Stand sells for $99.
Both the Square Reader for chip cards and the Square Stand Chip Card Accessory are available for preorder now and are scheduled to ship in spring of 2015. That's well ahead of the October 2015 EMV mandate adopted by U.S. payment networks.
Comments
Good job Square !
NFC? ApplePay?
Don't need an external NFC reader since NFC is included in the new iPads and it might work on the iPhone6's the same way. This doesn't address older iPads but the nice thing about the new iPad Air 2 is that it's ready to use as a point of sale (POS) device for NFC transactions. Square would simply need to add the NFC component to their software and I'm sure they will be doing that.
I see no evidence of NFC of support, which therefore mean no ?Pay or GoogleWallet support.
It doesn't need it. The NFC chip in the iPad is apparently only there of the Secure element aspect of storing your cards for paying viq compatible App Store apps with Touch ID. There are also no NFC antennas for traditional NFC to work on the iPad. If Square doesn't support all the elements for taking NFC payments then it's not going to be a feature.
I see no evidence of NFC of support, which therefore mean no ?Pay or GoogleWallet support.
It doesn't need it. The NFC chip in the iPad is apparently only there of the Secure element aspect of storing your cards for paying viq compatible App Store apps with Touch ID. There are also no NFC antennas for traditional NFC to work on the iPad. If Square doesn't support all the elements for taking NFC payments then it's not going to be a feature.
Check out Revel Systems, http://revelsystems.com/2014/09/30/revel-works-apple-pay. They just announced ApplePay-compatible iPad POS systems. I didn't see anywhere on their website where it said you'd have to use a separate NFC terminal. I could be making a huge assumption but Revel made a big announcement so I am further assuming they have the hardware necessary if it isn't using whatever is built in.
more: I emailed Revel to see how they're doing it and hope to get a response either on their website or by email.
If Square doesn't support all the elements for taking NFC payments then it's not going to be a feature.
It seems foolish to offer new merchant hardware which will only be good for a year, and then require merchants to upgrade if they don't want to be liable for any fraud. As I understand it, to qualify the POST has to support both EVM and contactless payments.
I didn't see anywhere on their website where it said you'd have to use a separate NFC terminal.
The Incipio SoftCard iPhone case had a built in NFC antenna for the 4-5S. So why couldn't this option be available as an aftermarket item to the Square POSTs to interface with any iPad?
It seems foolish to offer new merchant hardware which will only be good for a year, and then require merchants to upgrade if they don't want to be liable for any fraud. As I understand it, to qualify the POST has to support both EVM and contactless payments.
I may well be wrong here (corrections welcome) but my understanding is that the requirement is just for EMV, i.e. chip-cards in a slot or reader of some sort. I don't think that contactless is mandatory - although many POS system updates are including it.
While I love using ApplePay where available chip and pay is not going away and the credit card EMV mandate is October 1, 2015 with gas pumps by October 1, 2017.
The Square solution is used by small business owners that can't justify all in one POS readers.
I look forward to more NFC availability as it is the most user friendly and secure but recognize we will be living in a multi capability world for a while.
I may well be wrong here (corrections welcome) but my understanding is that the requirement is just for EMV, i.e. chip-cards in a slot or reader of some sort. I don't think that contactless is mandatory - although many POS system updates are including it.
Correct in the US. Only chip card acceptance is mandatory for the liability shift. EMV+Contactless gets you a PCI audit exemption.
In the EU, Mastercard has rules for mandatory contactless, starting 2016, I guess due to push back on the hassles of chip and pin.
They're a little late to the party.
I was wrong. I received an email from Revel:
My guess - only a guess - is that the answer is "yes, but..."
The "yes" is that the iPhone 6 has the necessary hardware.
The "but" is that Apple does not yet allow third-party access to the NFC capability.
NCR Silver for the iPad is $499, list.
They're a little late to the party.
There is an interesting backstory to this, of which I was unaware until recently.
Back in the Dark Ages when credit cards were starting to become common, they were primarily a "U.S. thing". Not entirely, but mostly. About the only cards in Europe were the "travel cards" such as American Express. They were in a somewhat different category and accepted primarily at hotels, high-end restaurants, car rental firms, airlines and similar places. Meanwhile in the U.S. people were traveling with BankAmericard and its relatives. The reason was that the U.S. then had no national banks - banking was limited in the wake of the Great Depression and banking collapse to be state-by-state. And some states didn't allow even that - each bank building was a separate bank !
You could pay by check ("cheques" for those with a more British English outlook) but these weren't readily accepted outside the region where that specific bank operated. To solve this problem (and others), Bank of America created BankAmericard and, after problematic early years, licensed the card to banks across the U.S., and a few internationally. Brilliant idea!
Fast-forward into the 80's and credit cards were everywhere across the U.S. but still had limited acceptance in Europe. The U.S. had by then relaxed the rules about connecting non-Bell equipment to the phone system so credit-card payments were processed quickly almost everywhere (yay -- dial-up !! ) But this was not the case in Europe. The telecom infrastructure, and pricing, did not lend itself as well as that in the U.S. to immediate processing of card transactions. In many cases they were batched up and processed at the end of the day. Not surprisingly, fraud became a serious problem, unlike the U.S. where "bad cards" were typically detected at the time of the transaction. (I still remember folks checking the printed "bad card" list to make sure the card hadn't been reported lost/stolen. Those were the days !)
So the European solution to this was to move to chip+PIN cards. The telecom infrastructure improved too but chip+PIN was the primary push against fraud. But fraud had never been such a big problem in the U.S. because of immediate processing, so the push towards chip cards was never as strong. Of course, as the "easy money" in Europe has dried up, the fraud has shifted to the U.S. where easily-cloned mag-stripe cards are the norm. Until next October.
So the U.S. is late to the party. And the reason is better initial telecom infrastructure. What a twist.
"And that, my friends, is the rest of the story"
Does anyone happen to know if SQUARE will retain the option to punch in the credit card manually?
For the people who only need it for a few transactions each year it would sure be nice if they retain this option.
Not exactly. Chip cards were rolled out long before chip+NFC cards. Likewise most POS systems added NFC readers before switching to chip+pin with integrated NFC readers.
There may be requirements "not to disable, damage, tamper or circumvent any anti-fraud" feature, which would include not disabling the NFC or Chip reading parts.
Does anyone happen to know if SQUARE will retain the option to punch in the credit card manually?
For the people who only need it for a few transactions each year it would sure be nice if they retain this option.
Hopefully not since this is the easiest way for people to use fake credit card numbers. There's nothing secure about entering numbers by hand. If, as a retailer, you're ready to assume all liability for fraud, then be prepared for the credit card companies to no longer accept responsibility for fraudulent purchases from hand-entered numbers. Signatures are a joke as well and many card companies don't require them for smaller purchases. This is why using TouchID makes so much sense. You're not going to be able to easily fake the fingerprint, especially while at the checkout stand. Even chipped cards don't have the ability to verify the real user. I hadn't thought about people who "loan" their credit cards to kids and family members. This won't work with TouchID unless that person's fingerprint is included on the phone.