I was reading in the March issue about Square Up credit card reader. I am new to the credit thing and was interested in any problems anyone has incountered.

I just set away to get one of these...hoping it will work.
I don't have either a smart phone or Ipad yet...wondered if anyone has advice as to which to get to use the Square.

While they seem simple and straight forward, the company limits you to $1000 in sales per week. Anything over that is held by them for 30 days before it is deposited. Unacceptable to me when my sales for shows are virtually always over that figure. When I inquired about getting that amount raised, their response was essentially "only IF and only WHEN we feel like it" even though I presented them with my sterling record with a previous processing company. I immediately threw away their card reader device and moved on to Intuit which is a good system from a good company. It's more expensive (a monthly fee) but in the end, I far prefer them and their service to Square which I found to be far less than satisfactory.

Have any of you read the "There's an app for that!" article in this month's Sunshine Artist? We compare providers, systems and charges of the top companies offering this right now. And yes, you are correct about squared up limiting your charges. You also didn't mention that it is virtually impossible to speak with a human being unless you are on twitter. We do compare them to a couple other companies that offer that same service without the above mentioned drawbacks. We also get the view from a long time provider that does not offer this and why they don't. Which company is for you, may depend on your price point and volume. Check it out.

Joe Halbrucker
General Manager
Sunshine Artist

Square will not increase your deposit limit until you actually establish a relationship with them. They raised mine weeks after I started using it and everyone else I know that asked was granted the increase. And the hold time for new users is really about 2 weeks. Square does not charge for charge backs, so they need to get a feel for you and your business before they proceed. That's what it seems to me, anyway. I think the absence of fees is worth it for many of us. I have used it now for 6 months and the only problem I had was using it very near the Canadian Border once and Rogers interfered with my signal. Square is aware of the problem and is working on it.

I have used it on both an iPhone and an iPad. Both worth seamlessly but the iPad lets you set up an inventory so that you can just touch a button for your items and it adds them up, with tax.

Your sales for the day are available immediately on a spread sheet that lists items, price, tax, fees, time of sale, etc. There is also a running total of charges when you sign in each time. If you use the gadget to to record cash sales also, it is a nice way to keep track.

I have sent them support emails 3 times and got a response within 24 hrs each time.

I love the thing for my purposes, but everyone needs to make their decisions based on the particular needs of their own business. I'm just sick of getting nickel and dimed by the big boys for bogus fees to line their pockets. Square used to charge 15 cents on top of the discount rate per transaction and recently dropped that fee.

I love the thing. It is perfect for me.

I used my square with an iPad for the first time last weekend and was COMPLETELY satisfied. And I emailed them on Monday to request they give me a weekly deposit os 2500 and it was done within 24 hours.

Hi everyone. Here is a new article from the letters section in the June 2011 issue of Sunshine Artist relevant to the smart phone technologies, credit card processing and the related costs.

http://www.1nbcard.com/content/mobile-phone-payment-solutions.html?&sl=EN

Please see The Rising Cost of Credit Card Processing using the link below. It is very informative.

http://www.1nbcard.com/content/the-rising-cost-of-credit-card-processing.html

We use ours with a Droid Pro and are also completely satisfied. Said goodbye to our old cc processor and the monthly (and quarterly) fees.

I have been using Square Up for about a year with a tablet as my processor since I don't have a smart phone. Unfortunately, my swiper has not worked well and I have requested another one. So I have been manually entering the credit card number information (results in a a slightly higher processing fee per transaction but otherwise fine). My sales are presently under $1000/week so they credit my bank account right after each show weekend - usually by Tuesday. When I am lucky enough to have more than $1000 in sales per week, I may need to look for another company, but at present I am very satisfied with Square Up. I also love the spreadsheet I can download at any time, which has a great breakdown of each credit card sale (item, tax, transaction fee, etc.). The woman I share a booth with has used her Square Up swiper with a smart phone and has had good luck with it (her card swiper has worked well).

I wanted to give everyone a heads up on this. 1st National Payment Solutions has been devoted to providing superior service and support to the artisan community for over 25 years. Over the last few years, during these rough economic times the back end processors who we use to make all of this possible have gotten out of control with the monthly fees and annual fees they forced upon our company and our merchants. All of these additional recurring fees upset a lot of our clients and nearly forced us straight out of the market in our #1 niche.

As a result we've adapted and since Nov 2011 have been offering our FREE Pay-As-You-Go Credit Card processing model. Similar to the Square model our Pay-As-You-Go plan has absolutely no recurring fees whatsoever and comes with a free swiper for your smart phone if that is the method you choose. Our plan is superior to the Square in that our free swipe device is much more durable than the square and made for high volume over long periods of time. We also offer a swipe/print device that will work with your smart phone. In addition, our Pay-As-You-Go model allows you to use any device, not just a smart phone with a dongle so if you are happy with your current wireless, store and forward or any other credit card processing device we offer the exact same plan for those as well and can very easily reprogram any one with zero cost to you. And if you don't have a unit we have many different options from which you can choose all which qualify for the same plan.

Our Pay-As-You-Go processing comes with the 24/7, 1 on 1 US based customer service & support that merchants have appreciated for 25 years. We have a solid reputation and stand behind our products and services and have the testimonials, BBB ratings and referrals to support that.

Please contact our company if you would like more info on this plan or any other merchant service plan that you might need.

Our Toll Free Number 877-964-1622 , our website is www.1nbcard.com and email sales@1nbcard.com

Looking forward to a long term mutually beneficial relationship.

After I started using the Square, I called Guy at TEAMAC to cancel my merchant account with them. He said he would match their rates. Since I had been with them for many years, I decided to stay with them. I'm glad I did, because shortly after that, Square took $ out of my account due to a chargeback. Four months later, and after many e-mails to them, I've yet to get it back. They've been no help, as every time I've e-mailed them I get back a computer-generated reply.