Mobile Credit Card Apps

           As detailed in our last blog, office document apps are essential for organization.  But for small on-the-go businesses, it is often difficult to process the many day-to-day transactions they make selling their products in different places and venues.  Small businesses on the move used to have to run cash only shops or process credit cards on laptops (Ferner). This can lead to a slow and lengthy process without a strong Internet connection or wireless hotspot. These kinds of connections are rarely found in certain event venues (Ferner).  Mobile credit card apps come into play significantly for these types of merchants and are quick and easy for the buyer and seller.

          Mobile credit card apps are the next big thing for small business, but how do they work?  They are actually quite simple.  Most of these credit card applications are free and easy to download from the app store on to your smart phone.  Although the app is free to download, you will need to purchase some type of “dongle” to go with your credit card app.  What is a dongle?  It is a hardware device that attaches to your mobile phone to swipe and read buyers credit cards (Ferner).  The dongle attaches into the audio jack of your android, blackberry, or I-phone for a secure connection (Ferner).  From there it is simple to set up your account and start accepting credit card payments.

          There are many types of credit card apps out there, but one of the most popular is called Square.  This is app is practical in many ways for it can be used with or without the proposed Square dongle (Ferner).  Businesses can swipe or type in credit card account information easily this way (Ferner).  Transactions can be processed with no hassle and allow the buyer to sign their receipt on the handy touch screen.  The receipt can then be sent automatically via email to the buyer (Ferner). The best thing about Square that gives it a competitive advantage to other credit card payment apps is the fact that it is device independent and no contract is required (Ferner).  Nevertheless, Square charges $.15 plus 2.75 percent for a swiped card and $.15 plus 3.5 percent for typed-in account information (Ferner).

          Another trendy credit card payment app is called Intuit GoPayment.  It is very similar to Square in some ways and very different in others.  With Intuit you can sign up with your bank account information and funds can be deposited within up to 2-3 days directly into your account.  Intuit is the same as square in the way it can swipe credit card information, but different because Intuit can save you time by syncing your transactions with the various GoPayment software such as quick books to manage your business.  Intuit gives you the option to pay as you go with different swipe rates for each credit card, or you can pay a monthly fee of 12.95 and save more on each transaction you make.  

          Being consumers, we can see that even though these two credit card apps have similar characteristics, they can serve different functions to store and organize your sales in different ways depending on your business.  Credit card apps are just another example of the way mobile business apps are progressing society and technology. Expect more on business apps in our next blog.