Verizon Wireless has teamed up with Intuit Inc. to provide a mobile credit card payment system to small businesses using an app and pocket-sized credit card reader.
The card reader can be plugged into either a mobile phone of tablet via the audio jack, allowing credit and debit cards to be swiped, or have their info entered manually. Payments are purportedly processed immediately.
The app from GoPayments is available on Android, BlackBerry and iOS platforms “for most popular 3G and 4G LTE smartphones and tablets,” according to Verizon. The app itself is free and the basic service has no monthly, transaction or cancellation fees but does take a 2.7% slice of wiped revenue. Business owners who want a bit of a discount on that can pay a monthly subscription of $12.95 meaning the percentage taken on every transaction gets lowered to 1.7%. The first two months of subscription will be free, Intuit has told Verizon customers.
Every GoPayment account can support up to 50 users, and the app also integrates with accounting service QuickBooks, keeping a record of every transaction.
To make the payment process quicker, the app also lets sellers create and sell from a list of frequently sold items, apply sales tax, add tips and send customized receipts via text message and email along with a map of where the transaction took place.
For those worried about the security of the system, Intuit says sensitive credit card information is never stored on the phone. Instead, it is encrypted twice; once via the card reader and a second time via the GoPayment app.
Executive director of the Business Solutions Group for Verizon Wireless Mike Schaefer said payments and transactions were often “the biggest hurdle businesses face.”
He added that he hoped the new payment system would go some way towards streamlining, simplifying and enabling business owners to get paid with minimal delay.
