The days of cash carrying customers are over. If you sell goods and services in today's marketplace, you must be able to accept credit cards. To date, this has proven difficult for small and home-based businesses because credit card processing has required costly monthly fees and the purchase of a credit card terminal machine. Businesses have had to weigh whether or not the expenses incurred were worth the benefits being offered to their customers. This is no longer a problem!
Thanks to the brilliant creation of the iPhone and relating internet applications, anyone can accept credit cards -- anywhere. And even better, it is completely affordable -- a business could start accepting credits with little to no out-of-pocket expense. All it takes is a smart phone, like the iPhone, and an internet data plan to get started. Most providers offer a free credit card reader, which hooks straight into your iPhone, iPad or Android and processes transactions over the Internet.
1. The Square
This is my favorite option for mobile credit card transactions. Why? Because the card reader is free, the size of a quarter, and hooks right into the headphone jack. The software is also free and is as simple as downloading a new application from the "app store". But even better, they have simplified the layers and made it into a one-stop shop. There is no set-up fee or a monthly merchant account fee. The Square's pricing plan is very simple -- one 2.75% charge for each credit card swipe. With your processing service comes reporting features to keep track of payments, next-day direct deposit of funds, and fast set-up. In addition, if the card reader isn't able to collect the information, a manual input of the credit card number may be collected.
