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Square Launches in Aus. 1.9% CC Fee Including AmEx. First $1000 Fee Free Processing With Referral

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Square Launches in Aus. 1.9% CC Fee Including AmEx. First $1000 Fee Free Processing With Referral
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NotAMoodle on 14/04/2016 - 06:08 squareup.com (1704 clicks)
Last edited 24/06/2017 - 02:11 by 3 other users

Square has finally arrived in Australia!

Square is a payment processor that accepts consumer credit cards and allows small businesses and independent sellers – and potentially those who wouldn’t have accepted a credit card before, to accept cards and easily facilitate cashless transactions – including American Express cards (so higher airline points earn), alongside Visa and MasterCard, all at only 1.9% CC fee.

Square is useful, and simple, for any small trader or seller to allow card-based transactions in person or online, so if you’ve ever wished you could accept a credit card for your market stall, Gumtree, garage sale or small invoiced-transactions, then it’s probably worth considering. Especially with the fact it accepts Amex at the same rate as a Visa.

It's free to join and a credit card reader compatible with your phone (iOS & Android) is sold separately for $19 shipped. See here https://squareup.com/au/reader - even without the reader you can start accepting credit card payments.

When compared to Paypal which charges 1.95% per transaction plus $169 for their card reader, this is very good news for all mobile or small businesses out there.

On top of this, when you sign up through a referral link, you will receive $1000 of fee free transactions, meaning you will not be charged anything for the first $1000 you sell within 180 days! See terms

Referral Links

Referral: random (60)

Referrer and referree get $1000 fee-free transactions for 180 days.

Financial

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Square

Comments

  • HardQuiz on 14/04/2016 - 06:18
    +3

    Finally, I can add "accept card payments" on my Gumtree listings

    • NotAMoodle on 14/04/2016 - 06:21

      I don't see what the problem is for people that actually sell goods on Gumtree (or similar)? If you meet in person and add 1.9% to the price it allows people to pay you by card, the money goes into your bank and if there is an issue you can issue a refund straight from the app.

      • tomsco on 14/04/2016 - 06:43
        +6

        What if a scammer tries a charge back?

        • NotAMoodle on 14/04/2016 - 06:52
          +4

          Just like Paypal, they have a dispute system and it's up to Square who get's the money. Obviously this is always going to happen in life with some of the types of people out there, however I guess keep good proof that your goods worked before selling them would always help if a charge back occurred.

          I'm only new to Square, but in 6 years of selling on Paypal I've had (roughly) 5 charge backs from over 1500 sales. I won all of those charge backs by having all proof etc, I guess the same applies here.

        • smashed on 14/04/2016 - 09:14
          +2

          @dazzywazzy:

          You will get more scumbags on Gumtree who are on the hunt to scam you this way.

        • SaberX on 14/04/2016 - 11:40

          @dazzywazzy:

          what sort of 'proof' have you used? Surely pictures etc woudl be hard to prove in real life whether the item was working still, when you took them etc? Seems alot of trouble if you sell multiple things?

        • jjcf on 14/04/2016 - 13:45
          +6

          @smashed: Gumtree is the Mt Druitt of the internet.

        • NotAMoodle on 14/04/2016 - 16:28

          @SaberX:

          My chargebacks have come from eBay, not Gumtree. The proof is rater easy when you have the original invoice etc

    • kolorijo on 14/04/2016 - 09:16
      +9

      Cash only for gumtree.

  • [Deactivated] on 14/04/2016 - 07:05

    Have they got a financial services license in Australia? Or have they teamed up with a local financial institution?

    Good to see another option apart from the banks & Paypal.
    What are their forex fees like? Other fees?

    • NotAMoodle on 14/04/2016 - 07:12

      I agree, at least there are some competition!

      All the Aussie legal stuff is here - https://squareup.com/au/legal/ua

      1.9% fee with CC as stated, 2.5% if you wish to send/email an invoice and have your clients pay that way. $19 one off for your Square card reader for your phone, apart from that there are no fees.

      Looks like they have a good support model as well, unlike the online generic Paypal response you get to nearly every question:

      Square Support team
      Our Support team is made up of Square employees who work side by side with the product, design and engineering departments to improve the customer experience. Which means they know our business inside and out and are ready to help you via phone, email or Twitter. We provide live phone support for all existing Square customers at 1800 760 137 . You can call us Monday through Friday, 9 AM to 5 PM (Melbourne time).

      • Jackson on 15/04/2016 - 09:05

        Side by side between Silicon Valley and Mumbai

    • [Deactivated] on 14/04/2016 - 08:20
      +2

      Probably not licensed. They've been fined countless times in various US states for operating without a license. ASIC isn't as harsh on epayment providers who aren't licensed, though (I assume) they are still meant to have one.

      Edit: Also, they haven't opted into the Australian epayment code according to latest list of organizations included in the code.

      • NotAMoodle on 14/04/2016 - 08:40

        What does this mean in laymen terms exactly?

        • [Deactivated] on 14/04/2016 - 08:43
          +6

          They Uber mode it, I assume.

          Edit: as in there as legitimate as the real thing (taxi's in ubers case), just without the usual licencing. They then just fight legal cases as they come - or at least judging by the fines they've received in the US that's how it seems.

        • NotAMoodle on 14/04/2016 - 08:46

          @dyl:

          Haha. Perfect way of explaining. Cheers

        • [Deactivated] on 14/04/2016 - 08:48

          @dazzywazzy:
          Haha yeah, couldn't think of a better way to explain it.

          Btw, just note it's simply my educated assumption based on square receiving fines in the US for not being licensed in various states - they may actually be licensed here.

  • Truthbe on 14/04/2016 - 07:12

    Is it 1.9% for international transactions?

    If so it looks better than stripe

    Edit: Doesn't look like its the same type of thing, you can't pit this on your website can you

    • NotAMoodle on 14/04/2016 - 07:15

      I had a fair read and couldn't find anywhere where they confirm or deny this, however found this, so more than likely it's 1.9% regardless.

      More features without more fees.
      Your Square account includes access to our free front-of-house and back-office tools at no extra cost. Accept payments, manage your business, receive customer feedback and more.
      Phone, email and live Twitter support
      Fast deposits directly to your bank account
      Powerful Square Register POS app
      Sophisticated sales analytics tools
      Customer feedback from receipts
      No sign-up fees
      No long-term contracts
      No inactivity fees
      No different fees for different cards
      No chargeback fees
      No PCI-compliance fees
      No refund fees
      No reporting fees

    • [Deactivated] on 14/04/2016 - 08:32
      +1

      "Additionally, cross-border payments are unsupported. This means that card transactions attempted outside of the country where you activated your Square account can’t be processed with Square. However, you can accept cash transactions while travelling internationally. If you’re in the country where you activated your Square account, you can also process international cards." They kinda say no then explain it as if you can, technically? It states you CAN accept international cards, though says cross-border is unsupported. I assume (due to legal bullshit?) the buyer has to be in the same country as you.
      https://squareup.com/help/au/en/article/4956-international-a…

      No extra fees (beyond usual international currency conversion fees) according to https://squareup.com/help/au/en/article/5085

      Can be implemented to a website through API. https://squareup.com/ecommerce

      • NotAMoodle on 14/04/2016 - 08:41

        Cheers for that!

  • [Deactivated] on 14/04/2016 - 07:36
    +3

    I dunno if I wanna be telling buyers to 'Square Up' when meeting up for Gumtree sales… :/

  • teasatotalling on 14/04/2016 - 07:47

    How do the charges compare to bank merchant charges, when paying through the internet (not using a reader)?

    • drewbles on 14/04/2016 - 15:33

      If you're doing large volumes in terms of dollars, banks will come out better if you can negotiate.

      Banks charge different txn rates for debit/regular/platinum/world/signature etc etc cards so the blended rate will be different for everyone.

      Amex and Diners are individually negotaited with Amex and Citi.

      As a rule, you should get substantially less over a blended rate for MC/Visa through a bank. For Amex/Diners, it's not bad though (once again, unless you're doing volume, but Diners/Amex are typically a smaller percentage of most merchants' overall txn's).

      • teasatotalling on 14/04/2016 - 20:29

        We average $500 in merchant fees per month from the Commonwealth
        I'll have to check but I think it's 2.5%, MC & Visa only

    • NotAMoodle on 14/04/2016 - 16:37

      As drewbles said, for bigger merchants you can negotiate with banks as they don't want to lose your business to other competitiors.

      For smaller merchants between $1-$75,000 this will come out on top by far.

      I think it will be much better if it eventually gets enough marketing out there and gets in and around our every day shopping experiences, as I'm sure everyone wants an Amex for instances but doesn't want to pay the extra percentage just to use it, or even like most shops who simply refuse to take it!

      My opinion on that last line of course.

  • lolcoaster on 14/04/2016 - 07:47
    +1

    Entering your PIN on a potentially compromised device…what a great idea.

    • mini2 on 14/04/2016 - 07:57

      Well they reckon they're PCI-DSS compliant…err their app might be but the device doesn't seem like it's been suitably hardenered for this purpose.

      • lolcoaster on 14/04/2016 - 08:01
        +2

        Well there's different grades of PCI-DSS compliance.

        But, ignore that. All someone needs is a fake app that looks like the Square app. The scammer gives you the phone with the fake app on top. You enter in your PIN and hand the phone back, they claim there's an error and then get you to enter the number in again on the real one.

        • NotAMoodle on 14/04/2016 - 08:13
          -2

          How many fake square apps would pass the App Store security screening?

        • [Deactivated] on 14/04/2016 - 08:20
          +2

          @dazzywazzy: Doesn't need to pass App Store requirements if it's jailbroken. And for Android, well…

        • Maverick-au on 14/04/2016 - 08:22

          @dazzywazzy:

          How many fake square apps would pass the App Store security screening?

          Why would the app have to go through security screening?

        • NotAMoodle on 14/04/2016 - 08:24
          -1

          @Maverick-au: when you submit an app to the AppStore as a developer, Apple test and check to ensure this kind of thing doesn't happen and they're very good at it.

          Except of course if jail broken and uses Cydia instead (jail broken App Store)

        • SnakeCasablanca on 14/04/2016 - 08:26
          +1

          @dazzywazzy: How easy is it to jailbreak a phone / tablet to accept third party apps?

        • NotAMoodle on 14/04/2016 - 08:26
          -1

          @sidewaysandsmoking:

          True - someone could make it for Cydia and do it through that way, I guess nothing is ever fool proof and the kind of people will always think of things to make a dodgy Buck.

          I wouldn't think it would account for a huge amount of fraud in this instance, but I could be wrong!

        • NotAMoodle on 14/04/2016 - 08:28
          -1

          @SnakeCasablanca:

          For me, really easy. For someone who can follow guides on the internet from a quick Google search, also just as easy.

          Someone has to make a "fake" app yet though, which hasn't currently happened.

        • eDust on 14/04/2016 - 09:17
          +2

          For all those asking about getting a "fake" app approved - you don't need to. As a developer you can develop and test anything you want on your own iPhone, you just need a developer account, no jailbreaking required. On Android it's even easier.

        • neil aus on 15/04/2016 - 23:05

          Or a fake website with chrome in full screen mode. To take the pin.

      • incarnate on 14/04/2016 - 18:48
        +1

        This device is absolutely not PCI-DSS compliant, there is a reason there aren't more of these sort of devices around. The average smartphone can't be considered a secure device for handling a PIN - this is why PayPal's equivalent has a number pad.

        PCI PIN requirements for the bored: https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/documents/PCI_PIN_Secur…

        • mini2 on 14/04/2016 - 19:39

          …that's why I said they (Square) reckons it's compliant. IIRC something as trivial as having a screen protector on a device will render that device non-compliant.

        • stokesy77 on 20/05/2016 - 22:42
          -1

          You know that for a fact do you? Why couldn't it be? As said above there are different DSS levels, and the device or phone wouldn't likely be storing the credit card number which is a big part of the standards. Sure nothing is fool proof but there are eaiser ways to get someone's CC chip info from your wallet via an NFC wand!

  • JohnHowardsEyebrows on 14/04/2016 - 07:52

    So can you just pay yourself? Would be a good way to top up FF points if necessary, by paying with an Amex that gets 1.5 points per dollar….

    • NotAMoodle on 14/04/2016 - 07:54

      Can't see why not, might not be the most "ethical" thing I've read this morning :) and they will probably catch you eventually, but as far as the system goes, it would work!

      • senorclean on 14/04/2016 - 08:01

        That's an interesting question - I'm absolutely not recommending it, but could you pay yourself with a credit card - it show up as a 'purchase' and you effectively get a cash advance for the 2% charge?

        _>

        mod edit: Removed referral link

        • ESEMCE on 14/04/2016 - 08:32

          and the first $1000 of charges is free, so free cash advances for the first $52,631.57 (if my maths is correct)

        • [Deactivated] on 14/04/2016 - 08:37
          +2

          @scubacoles:
          I think it means the first $1000 is fee free - so the first $1000; not 52,631.57.

          Edit: also, for every $1 I believe you get 1 frequent flyer point. Each point is ~0.5cents. (According to 2000 points for $10) as you're paying 1.9 cents in fees for every $1 spent it's not profitable, I believe.

          Edit2: eh AMEX.. So $1 = 1.5 points = 0.75 cents.

          0.75c - 1.9c = -1.15c per $1.

        • grasstown on 14/04/2016 - 08:38
          +1

          @scubacoles: 1000 transactions/1000 you sell, not 1000 of charges

        • ESEMCE on 14/04/2016 - 09:01

          @dyl:
          Yeah, you're right..
          Dunno if the language has been changed or I just misinterpreted.

        • godzilla123 on 14/04/2016 - 10:23
          +1

          signed up under senorclean

        • FatGPT on 14/04/2016 - 15:05
          +1

          @godzilla123: Signed up under godzilla123

    • RohBoat on 14/04/2016 - 08:51

      It takes about 2 days to hit your account. Would work if you didn't need it instantly.

    • GnarlyKnuckles on 14/04/2016 - 10:29
      +1

      "… by paying with an Amex that gets 1.5 points per dollar"

      But each point is only worth about 1 cent… so you'd essentially be paying 2 cents per dollar to 'make back' 1.5 cents worth of points per dollar.

    • oswade on 14/04/2016 - 12:50
      -1

      Hi all, dont do this! Square can detect when you pay yourself and they will hold your money until you refund the amount to your card as it breaches their t&cs.

      • NotAMoodle on 14/04/2016 - 16:39

        Have you done this yourself? What if using your partners Amex for instance, I would assume they have no idea?

      • RohBoat on 14/04/2016 - 18:55

        Are you sure? I've done a few transactions with my own cards to show my mates and I've received the money. It was only for $1 each time though.

  • JohnHowardsEyebrows on 14/04/2016 - 08:06

    Don't see why it's unethical. It's simply acquiring FF points by paying the merchant fees. Don't know if Square would have a problem with you using it for that end… What's bad for them in this?

    • NotAMoodle on 14/04/2016 - 08:12

      I guess you're right :)

  • burningrage on 14/04/2016 - 08:17
    +1

    Maybe it's worth mentioning but there is no tap-and-pay for this system.

    For time critical sales like restaurant etc, I can see why Paypal Here could be useful. Hakata Gensuke Doncaster uses similar system.

    So this is probably more for non-time critical sales such as professional services sales.

  • EightImmortals on 14/04/2016 - 08:18
    +2

    I noticed the reader plugs into the 3.5mm headphone jack, is that a thing now? Old guy thought they were just for plugging your headphones in. Does this work on all phones?

    • NotAMoodle on 14/04/2016 - 08:21
      +2

      Almost all iOS and Android devices mate - https://squareup.com/help/au/en/article/3887-devices-compati…

    • endotherm on 14/04/2016 - 08:35

      I imagine all phones "headphone" jacks are 4-ring types and handle an external microphone as well as stereo earphones. I'm guessing this device converts the data read from the card to tones much like the old screech of a dial-up modem and uploads it on the mic line. Nothing too magic about the reading part, all the security would be handled through the app.

      • stickyfingers on 14/04/2016 - 09:24

        Sure does, but the new readers encrypt the tones now.

  • Ijuiceman on 14/04/2016 - 08:27
    +5

    Thanks for the heads up OP. Been paying merchant fees for years, for the 1 or 2 CC we process each year.
    Crazy to pay $50 per month for this "service", but having the facilities is important. Now I can cancel the Merchant service and use Squareup and most likely not pay a cent for a couple of years with my $1000 credit on fees.

    • NotAMoodle on 14/04/2016 - 08:30

      Awesome! It won't suit everyone, but should definitely help a few of us here in Aussie land!

    • Findmebargain on 14/04/2016 - 08:38
      +1

      The $1000 fee free charges available for only 180 days though.

      • NotAMoodle on 14/04/2016 - 08:43

        Wouldn't be hard to get a partner/cousin/friend to jup once every 180 days to get $1000 new credit I would think?

        • Findmebargain on 14/04/2016 - 08:55

          In the context of Ijuiceman who only do 1 or 2 cc transactions a year, probably a little too much of a hassle? A customer wants to pay you but you're waiting on your partner/cousin/friend to sign up….?

        • Ijuiceman on 14/04/2016 - 13:54

          @Mcz: I would save a lot on this service, due to the no ongoing fees. I am not fussed about the credit, I only know that I will not need to keep paying the merchant fees that my bank charges me every month. We looked at Paypal, but it is not really suitable for a larger business, where this is.

        • Findmebargain on 14/04/2016 - 14:22
          +1

          @Ijuiceman: Yep I agree you should go for it definitely worth not paying ongoing fees. I thought I would point out about the 180 day window for your initial $1000 fee-free transactions referring to your comment

          and most likely not pay a cent for a couple of years with my $1000 credit on fees.

          :)

  • [Deactivated] on 14/04/2016 - 08:32

    Does it work with Blackberry?

    The funny thing is that the phone they use to display the product on the website is a blackberry. But when you go to verify if the reader works with blackberry its not listed as a brand in the drop down menu.

    I am running Android 4.4 on my Priv so I am sure it will work.

  • grasstown on 14/04/2016 - 08:40
    -1

    "Square has finally arrived in Australia!"
    Where is it already, and how long has it been around there

    • adhin on 14/04/2016 - 08:45
      +1

      Bunnings have been selling it for $19 for a few weeks now.

  • noshopping on 14/04/2016 - 08:41
    +7

    Voted it. Anything to stop the cartel banks + Paypal. Need more competition in this space! Plus seems like a good deal too.

  • NotAMoodle on 14/04/2016 - 08:44

    Off to bed after night shift, will try and answer more questions when I wake up. Cheers guys and gals.

  • leTintin on 14/04/2016 - 08:45

    Can you accept payments over the phone, ie someone reads out their credit card details to you?

    • NotAMoodle on 14/04/2016 - 08:46

      Yep. You can manually enter the numbers straight in like a normal card reader.

      • immortalbjr on 22/04/2016 - 18:33

        You can, however I read somewhere that when you do this is was the same 1.9% price as swiping a card in person, however now ive purchased a reader and signed up its apparently 2.5% which is only .5% better than paypal and the main reason I purchased the thing. Looks like i'll be returning the reader and staying with paypal

        • NotAMoodle on 22/04/2016 - 21:21

          Maybe call/tweet/facebook their support first? Sounds like an error mate.

        • immortalbjr on 22/04/2016 - 21:26

          @dazzywazzy: I'll try but I unfortunately highly doubt its an error. I would have sworn I read in the OP that all processing was 1.9% whether swiped or entered manually as thats the only thing that got me interested in swapping from paypal.

          When registering it says entering manually "incurs additional fees" or something like that and their support page says manual transactions are 2.5% which makes it basically pointless to me now.

        • NotAMoodle on 22/04/2016 - 23:20

          @immortalbjr: HEre is an example I found on my receipt from one of my days (I enter in manual not using a card reader)

          Fees
          ($0.70)

          Net Total
          $39.29

          Now the sale was $39.99 - 1.9% is roughly $0.75?? Without looing further, I would say this is def not 2.5%. Hope it helps. My math could be wrong however.

          PS - This was refunded as I had some referrals from this thread.

  • RohBoat on 14/04/2016 - 08:49
    +1

    When did they start charging for the card reader? It was free about 3 weeks ago.
    I had to enter an ABN to get it free though.
    OP, did you enter an ABN?

    If I knew they were going to start charging I would have posted this as a deal, sorry!

    They also sell these readers at officeworks for $9.95 but not sure if that is regular price or if it was on special.

    • t25 on 14/04/2016 - 09:37

      That would have been a great way to get their product out in the market. However, the NFC version looks much more practical in australia.

    • NotAMoodle on 14/04/2016 - 16:41

      NO ABN entered mate. I believe they have a few readers also, not just the small square one. Cheers

      • RohBoat on 14/04/2016 - 18:31

        The one they sent me was the headphone connector one, not the bluetooth one.

    • RohBoat on 14/04/2016 - 18:47

      I stand corrected, looks like officeworks had them on sale at that price. Seems to be $19 again.

  • ciab on 14/04/2016 - 09:16
    +4

    Here is an Aussie company https://www.payrightaway.com.au/

    Introductory Offer: As an early user of Pay RIGHT AWAY you will enjoy benefits that include a free Payment Terminal (usually $149 up front), and enjoy a long term discounted transaction rate of (1.65% inc GST). With no contracts or monthly fees, start enjoying the benefits of on-the-spot payment processing.

    The reader does contactless payments such as Tap & Go and PayWave, along with full EFTPOS chip & PIN or magstripe, and next day settlements through ANZ. I think it only works with Xero accounting program. So mainly suited to businesses.

    http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/technology/ingogo-l…

    • coolhand on 14/04/2016 - 09:51

      do you have to use xero with this for invoices etc? Because that is $25/month

    • teasatotalling on 14/04/2016 - 10:01

      Looks like a beta product

    • NotAMoodle on 14/04/2016 - 16:42

      Sounds early stages, definitely keep us updated though and post a deal when you think it's ready, especially if 100% Aussie owned I would switch or use a mix of both in an instant!

      • RohBoat on 14/04/2016 - 18:49
        +1

        You need to link it up to Xero. When you press register the first thing it asks is for Xero permissions.

    • T-man on 15/04/2016 - 00:16

      Will sign up when they are integrated to Shopify

  • bloomer on 14/04/2016 - 09:21
    +3

    As an alternative to PayPal Here I can see certainly see the attraction of Square at that price (the new PayPal reader does accept AmEx apparently, but I have the old one and don't want to pay another $149 for a new reader).

    However, the lack of a website integration feature is a bummer. I have been happily using an Australian company called PIN Payments (pin.net.au) for my online payments (but no AmEx yet), saving a lot on fees (1.75%+30c, GST incl) compared to PayPal (2.6%+30c, GST excl).

    It'd be nice if Square showed whether their fees are incl GST.

    • ciab on 14/04/2016 - 09:22

      The only downside to pinpayments is the 7 day settlement

      • bloomer on 14/04/2016 - 09:56

        Yeah, that's a good point. But at least for me, I don't mind that as much as having no settlement from PayPal (for the relatively small payment volume I have through PayPal, I have to manually transfer out funds, so Pin is better for me).

      • zacdavies on 05/11/2016 - 10:17

        Pin employee here - We're always happy to discuss lowering settlement delay based on volume and or once we've seen some processing history in our system.

    • aam on 14/04/2016 - 14:24

      Another Pin Payments user for online payments. Support & ease of use has been excellent so far. We had to purchase a plug-in to integrate onto our website, but well worth the money. Also, worthwhile negotiating rates & payment terms with them. They are flexible subject to volume, based on my experience.

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