Square opens up Square Cash payments to businesses in bid to compete with PayPal, Apple Pay
Mobile payments service Square announced on Monday that businesses can begin accepting payments sent via Square Cash, an iPhone and Android app previously aimed exclusively at person-to-person transfers.
Although regular users still won't be charged for transactions, any businesses accepting Square Cash will owe a 1.5 percent processing fee, according to the New York Times. Some rival peer-to-peer apps, like PayPal's Venmo, don't charge any fees, but the amount is still below the 2 to 3 percent Square normally charges for credit and debit card transactions.
Square told the Times that Cash has been fairly successful so far, processing over $1 billion in transactions annually.
One trait separating Square Cash from its rivals is the concept of a "$Cashtag," a short Twitter-like handle used to accept funds. That can potentially make payments simpler for Cash users, who can also make payments via cash.me if they don't have their phone nearby.
The launch comes amid growing competition in the mobile payments arena, spurred largely by the US introduction of Apple Pay in October. Square's main competition though is likely PayPal, which continues to dominate the mobile payments industry.
Although regular users still won't be charged for transactions, any businesses accepting Square Cash will owe a 1.5 percent processing fee, according to the New York Times. Some rival peer-to-peer apps, like PayPal's Venmo, don't charge any fees, but the amount is still below the 2 to 3 percent Square normally charges for credit and debit card transactions.
Square told the Times that Cash has been fairly successful so far, processing over $1 billion in transactions annually.
One trait separating Square Cash from its rivals is the concept of a "$Cashtag," a short Twitter-like handle used to accept funds. That can potentially make payments simpler for Cash users, who can also make payments via cash.me if they don't have their phone nearby.
The launch comes amid growing competition in the mobile payments arena, spurred largely by the US introduction of Apple Pay in October. Square's main competition though is likely PayPal, which continues to dominate the mobile payments industry.
Comments
Nice!
Just to brag, my company just took over their old building
Dammit, this is what I've wanted Apple Pay to do. Person-to-person private payments a la Bitcoin (versus the traditional bank to bank electronic funds transfer).
I would think that Apple would perceive person to person as chump change compared to the global trillions of dollars of credit card purchases that occur annually. But once Apple Pay makes it big and starts to save the credit card companies billions of dollars in fraud protection, I suspect credit card companies may throw in person to person transactions with iPhone to iPhone touch pay in a few years for free as a token of their gratitude. Would be cool to touch another iPhone, say an amount to transfer, touch your finger to Touch ID, and your credit card pays that person directly to their bank account, or to their credit card as a credit, or iTunes account to iTunes account. Will be easy to set up once Apple gets done focusing on Apple Pay with online and brick and mortar stores.
http://tailpuff.net/squarecash-terrible-support/