Teck-Tips Topic : SQUARE... A new mobile payment system for your iPod, iPad, and iPhone. The Founder of Twitter developed this tool..

Welcome to SQUARE… Here is an amazing "merchant credit card" service for anyone or any entity that needs portable and safe means of receiving payments by Credit Cards… Simply, the platform is (hardware) based with APPLE's iPhone, IPad, iPod Touch, and Android devices, supported with a software APP that one installs onto their "smart phone."

To get going... lets speak from an iPad and iPhone4 perspective which we tested. We used our iPhone4, launched the APP Store and downloaded the Free SQUARE, Inc., Application software. The user simply completes several brief Set-Up screens by entering the User's Personal Profile information, which includes your Bank and Checking Account data into which you desire the Credit Card Payments to be deposited. Once completed, the SQUARE system responds with "Approved" or otherwise if your data was incorrectly entered... It takes only several minutes to complete, no waiting on hold for a merchant representative. Next SQUARE will make two small deposits, like $0.11 and $0.32, for example, into your checking account. To complete the process and verify you and your checking account, the new user re-enters the on-iPhone4 "Set-Up" screen, and enters these two deposit amounts, which completed the loop in establishing that this device, password, and login, corresponds to a particular Banking Account. Now this one-time set up is complete, and you're ready to receive Credit Card Payments. Other Merchant Account services takes many days and you must speak or meet with a Company Representative. Not so with SQUARE... In 10 days SQUARE will ship to you free of charge their small plug-in Credit Card reader, which is to be inserted into the iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch's "ear phone" socket... Few other points. There is NO minimum monthly usage requirements; NO set up fees; NO Gateway fees, NO annual fees, and NO cost for SQUARE's Card Reader as they send it to you free and they pay for the shipping...

Lets Sell Something... In the example shown with the images below, we sold a 1oz bottle of ISAGENIX's IsaWATER Alkalized Concentrate for $9.95. Since the "buyer" desires to pay by Credit Card; voilå, 

1. Plug-in the SQUARE credit card reader into the "ear-phone" socket, and 
2. Launch the SQUARE App Icon... Log-IN to the SQUARE's system with your email address and password you established 10 days ago,
3. Input with the iPhone's soft "key pad" the dollar amount of the Purchase, enter Sales Tax if appropriate; At setup you determine Sales Taxs & Tipping;
4. Select Payment Method, then either Swipe Credit Card, or enter Credit Card data manually,
5. Have the Buyer sign on your device's screen, with their finger, or use a "capacitative stylus," inexpensive, at http://www.eForCity.com sells them for $3.
6. Then select, Process the Payment, within a few seconds the Credit Card is "Authorized", "Declined" or the Card did not read correctly, where you may need to re-swipe the CC. Best to Swipe at a speed of 12" per second... like moving your hand across a typical computer keyboard in ONE second. Too Fast or Too Slow may lead to Card-Read errors. A little practice, before you're with a client... The CC's MAG-Strip must face towards the Thick portion of CC reader.
7. The SQUARE system, provides GPS data as to where the transaction occurred, and permits an email address for the Purchaser's records of the purchase.
8. Within a few seconds, several emails are issued, one to the Purchaser showing the Purchase transaction, the amount, date, Payee, and their signature;
9. A second email is issued to the Seller, providing the Sales information and the Net Amount that will be credited into the Seller's Bank Account. And a Third email notifying the SELLER that $xxx.xx is being credited into the Bank Account.  I have tested and used SQUARE many times over the past Month, with our iPad and iPhone; the SELLER receives the funds in 36-48 hours, with transactions during weekdays, add a day or two, for Sales over the weekend, as the SELLER's Bank may not process these "Merchant" Deposits until 9am Monday, for example...

We have noticed that the SQUARE System portable "Merchant" card processing, are being used in many Urban areas, at Bars, Lounges and Restaurants, for example, to process Credit Card payments for their Patrons... think about it... With SQUARE plugged into the Proprietor's iPad or iPhone, the Waiter brings over to your table, or at the Bar, your "check," you review it, the check amount Total, and Sales Tax are entered by the Waiter/Bar Tender, you use the Key Pad on the iPad/iPhone to enter the Server's TIP dollar amount or Percent, (Merchant Selectable); YOU may swipe your own Credit Card, or have the Server do it, right there at the Table/Bar in your sight, signing using your Finger or a Stylus provided by the Server, and you're done... and your Credit Card never leaves your possession... no more "Credit Card Cloning" worries, as the Credit Card Holder's information is NOT stored in the iPad or iPhone device, the iPad or iPhone is only a high speed "conduit" transmitting the transaction to SQUARE's servers; The Melrchant cannot retrieve your CC data other than the last 4-digits of the CC and your NAME... AMAZING...
 
In the News, WSJ:  "Square, Inc., a new mobile payment service started by the co-founder of Twitter, has rolled out for a mass rollout of its product. The San Francisco-based startup, founded in February 2009, has developed a plug-in device and related software that allows merchants (or "Walk-Around-Sales-Folks" like us) to accept credit card payments through their cell phones. The company released a beta version of its service to a small number of merchants in December, 2009, and roll out its product more broadly mid-year, 2010, said Mr. Dorsey, who left Twitter to launch Square.  By lowering the set-up fees and operating costs associated with credit card terminals, Square hopes to greatly expand the number of people that can accept credit card payments. "This addresses a need that is acute and huge," said Gideon Yu, a partner with Khosla Ventures, a venture capital firm that last November led a $10 million investment in Square. Square had said it solved its hardware issues after co-founder Jim McKelvey was dispatched to China for a few weeks to deal with manufacturing bottlenecks. Now, Mr. Dorsey said the company has the ability to make over 10,000 "dongles" a day.  Mr. Dorsey said the company is expecting to sell a lot more than 100,000 units. The company's wireless application, which is available for download on Apple Inc.'s App Store and Google Inc.'s Android Market, has been downloaded over 100,000 times, according to data listed on the Google Android Market."