Device accepts credit cards on iPhone, iPad, Android

June 12, 2011 at 12:00a.m.

There are all kinds of ways to accept money these days. Running a business requires you to make it easy on your customers when it comes to accepting money.

Besides the usual methods, PayPal lets you pay most anyone with minimal effort. But accepting credit cards usually has been a hassle for many small businesses. You have to set up complicated accounts, for starters, with monthly fees and rental agreements for the card readers. Most of them are clunky at best and require you to tie up a phone line every time you run a card through them to accept a payment. But now there’s a much better way.

Square Up has just introduced a credit-card reader that’s really amazing. It’s called the Square, and that’s what it looks like.

It’s a tiny little square device that’s about an inch square in size. It works by plugging it into your iPhone’s headset jack. It also fits on an iPad, and there’s even one for an Android phone.

Here’s how it works:

Just plug it onto the iPhone and run the free Square App, which you can download from iTunes. And yes, even the Square reader is free. You go to their website to sign up. You enter in your bank-account number and some other basic information. Once you qualify, they send you the reader for free, and you’re ready to go. It couldn’t be easier to set up.

Running the app first presents you with the Square “Take Payment” screen. All you do is run the credit card’s magnetic strip through the Square reader and then type in the amount you wish to charge the card. Other features let you set up the actual items you are selling. You can select the item or items being purchased via their little picture from a visual menu. After you select the items or enter in the amount to charge, you hand them the iPhone or iPad and have them sign their name using their finger.

If appropriate, customers also can add a tip if that feature is enabled. Tips are offered in 5 percent increments. The last screen lets them input their email address or phone number. The Square system will email or text them their receipt of the transaction. They also can elect to skip this function if no receipt is required.

Logging onto the Square website gives you instant access to your account. You can see all of your detailed transactions history, track your daily deposits, even perform a refund if needed. You can update your personal information at any time. You can, for example, update your receipt address, email and bank- account information in a few moments. There’s even a way to update the name on your account to reflect your business. This is especially useful to your customers so that they will remember the charge when they see it on their monthly account statements.

Fees are straight forward with Square. Square gets 2.75 percent on each transaction, and there are no hidden fees of any kind. There’s no monthly charges, no cost to open up an account and, as I mentioned, the reader is free as well. And best of all, there’s no contract, ever. Square also offers a way to pay without the credit-card reader, but it’s more expensive.

Square accepts all major credit cards. Square will even accept debit cards in the same way you run a credit card.

If you’re looking for the latest, easiest and coolest way to accept credit-card payments in a store or out in the field, give Square Up a look.

For more details, go to www.squareup.com.

Craig Crossman is a national newspaper columnist writing about computers and technology. He also hosts the No. 1 daily national computer radio talk show, “Computer America,” heard on Business TalkRadio, Monday through Friday, 10 p.m.-midnight. For more information, visit his website at www.computeramerica.com.

2011, McClatchy-Tribune Information Services