Girl Scouts Can Now Swipe Credit Cards with GoPayment

If it’s good enough for the Girl Scouts’, smartphone credit card processing is good enough for your business too.

The Girl Scouts’ of NorthEast Ohio have been equipped with Intuit’s GoPayment mobile payment app and credit card reader for iPhone and Android devices that will allow them to take credit card payments for those addicting little cookies. The promotion is in celebration of the Girl Scouts 99th anniversary in March, and Intuit gladly handed the equipment over to the Girls in order to increase awareness of the GoPayment service. (who hasn’t heard of the Girl Scouts)

From the Press Release:

“We’re glad to put the latest mobile technology in the hands of America’s future business leaders to help them increase cookie sales,” said Chris Hylen, vice president and general manager of Intuit’s Payment Solutions division. “For this generation of girls in particular, running a business and being able to take payments anywhere with mobile apps like GoPayment will become second nature. We’re eager to see how sales will increase now that they take credit cards with GoPayment.

For a limited time, Intuit is extending this same offer to all Girl Scout councils across the country so they can maximize their cookie sales. Councils and troop leaders can get more information by calling Intuit’s GoPayment Girl Scout hotline at: 800-871-3334.”

You can run, but you can’t hide…your wallet as The Girl Scouts can now overcome your lame ol’ “I don’t carry cash” excuse when they roll up on you outside of your local grocery store slanging their product graciously ask your support of their program.

[via: 9to5Mac]

Square Drops Transaction Fees, Hopes To Boost Volume

From my email inbox:

Square drops transaction prices

I’m assuming that Square was paying attention to Intuit and its new smartphone credit card processing service GoPayment, which is one of the reasons why Square has decided to drop their fees for its own no merchant accounted needed service down to just a flat 2.75% per total transaction fee (purely speculation). Now you will still have to pay 3.75% if you manually type in the credit card number, but for both transaction types, the “+15 cents” Square initially tacked on to every charge has been dropped.

Most of the buzz around this announcement by Square is that they will more than likely take a revenue hit by dropping the 15 cents charge, hopes to gain volume in order to further cement itself as the front runner in the relatively new mobile transaction processing arena as other big players (like Intuit, Visa, Bank of America, etc) start to make a move and offer similar services that rival what Square has been doing for a little over a year.

In my opinion, if a move like this from Square can get other players’ attention like Intuit, and thus creating even more competition (which is always good for the consumer), paying per transaction fees as a small business with low volume credit card transaction (and the cool factor for swiping a client’s credit card with my smartphone) still beats dealing with those expensive POS (Point of Sale) machines…that ALWAYS seem to be out of receipt paper.

…But that’s just me

Intuit GoPayment is the New Smartphone Credit Card Processor in Town

GoPayment ReaderRecently announced, Intuit (the company behind QuickBooks) has released a smartphone credit card precessing service for small businesses called GoPayment that allows you to accept and swipe credit cards with your smartphone. The GoPayment service consists of the GoPayment app and a free card reader for low-volume businesses that attaches to your phone via the headphone jack.

What makes GoPayment so attractive for small businesses is instead of monthly fees, you are charged a transaction fee per swipe. The GoPayment transaction fees are very competitive at 2.7% of the total transaction + 15 cents for swiped transactions and 3.7% + 15 cents for manual (keyed in) transactions.

Square ReaderThe GoPayment service is almost identical to the already established Square service where you also get a free reader and the basic per transaction fees mirror each other. Where GoPayment changes the game is if you do manage to do some heavy transaction volumes. With GoPayment, you can opt for a $12.95 monthly fee drop down to 1.5% + 30 cents for swiped transactions and 2.7% + 30 cents for manual transactions. Additionally, up to 50 users can use one account if you have multiple people accepting credit cards on your company’s behalf. GoPayment still isn’t any sort of Square killer, because you do need a merchant account to use Intuit whereas Square is merchant-account free.

Regardless of which one you choose, services like this are a Godsend for small businesses who don’t do enough transactions to justify the regular credit card processing fees; but needs to adapt to their clients “I don’t have any cash/checks on me” mentality that comes with the popularity of using plastic for all things financial these days.

GoPayment is available for iPhone, Android, and BlackBerry (as well as some tablets) and the app and card reader are free when you sign up.

via: SlashGear