61–70 of 152 posts
this is going to cost small - mid cap merchants more money!
It saves a ton of money for merchants who make over $10,000 per month. Those are the people who will sign up for the new plan.
In case anyone from square is reading this - you're page loads absolutely 0 content with JS disabled. Just some feedback, take it or leave it.
Considering the webapp itself doesn't function with JavaScript disabled, that sounds like a feature instead of a bug. It keeps people that will never be their customers out and away from their support queue.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hi tibbon! To answer 1: Almost all of the fee structure goes to players much higher up the chain than Square. The networks take a chunk, but in fact most of the fee goes to the originating bank (the bank that issued the card). This is a major source of income for most banks these days and can generally be arbitrarily set by them since merchants not only have no other options except cash, but also cannot tell what the…
I am interested in hearing what you have to discuss.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hi tibbon! To answer 1: Almost all of the fee structure goes to players much higher up the chain than Square. The networks take a chunk, but in fact most of the fee goes to the originating bank (the bank that issued the card). This is a major source of income for most banks these days and can generally be arbitrarily set by them since merchants not only have no other options except cash, but also cannot tell what the…
Actually most (depending on the card, the great majority) of those fees end up going right back to the cardholder. Those fees are what pays for all those airline points, cash-back discounts, guarantees and liability protections, purchase insurance etc. Another way of thinking about credit cards is a way that a large groups of customers are able to band together to collectively demand discounts, rewards and other valu…
Perhaps I'm a minority here, but I actually would more prefer just simple cards that are used for payment than a reward-based card (which is why i have a very basic debit card from a credit union). All the airline points and discounts just strike me as marketing more than a real benefit. US Airlines keeps reminding me of the number of points I've forfeited by not using them enough... as if that will make me want to use them more and still not get free flights.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hi tibbon! To answer 1: Almost all of the fee structure goes to players much higher up the chain than Square. The networks take a chunk, but in fact most of the fee goes to the originating bank (the bank that issued the card). This is a major source of income for most banks these days and can generally be arbitrarily set by them since merchants not only have no other options except cash, but also cannot tell what the…
Actually most (depending on the card, the great majority) of those fees end up going right back to the cardholder. Those fees are what pays for all those airline points, cash-back discounts, guarantees and liability protections, purchase insurance etc. Another way of thinking about credit cards is a way that a large groups of customers are able to band together to collectively demand discounts, rewards and other valu…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merchant_account#First_Tier_-_Q...
And an example of a processor's fee schedule here:
http://www.gotmerchant.com/merchant_fees.php
Meanwhile, my debit cards (which are almost always processed as credit since I don't like typing my PIN) still collect 2-3% and I get no benefits.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Actually most (depending on the card, the great majority) of those fees end up going right back to the cardholder. Those fees are what pays for all those airline points, cash-back discounts, guarantees and liability protections, purchase insurance etc. Another way of thinking about credit cards is a way that a large groups of customers are able to band together to collectively demand discounts, rewards and other valu…
Very interesting! Perhaps I'm a minority here, but I actually would more prefer just simple cards that are used for payment than a reward-based card (which is why i have a very basic debit card from a credit union). All the airline points and discounts just strike me as marketing more than a real benefit. US Airlines keeps reminding me of the number of points I've forfeited by not using them enough... as if that will…
What is needed is an entirely new network....
I see a potential for abuse - if the cash back on certain credit cards exceeds the max rate, people could cycle money through for profit. e.g. I had a 2% cash back credit card Cashback: 21k/mo * 2%=$420 Fees: $275 Upside potential: $145/mo Not much profit possible, but with multiple accounts at roughly 2 $400 swipes per day per account, I would watch out for something like this.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Actually most (depending on the card, the great majority) of those fees end up going right back to the cardholder. Those fees are what pays for all those airline points, cash-back discounts, guarantees and liability protections, purchase insurance etc. Another way of thinking about credit cards is a way that a large groups of customers are able to band together to collectively demand discounts, rewards and other valu…
Very interesting! Perhaps I'm a minority here, but I actually would more prefer just simple cards that are used for payment than a reward-based card (which is why i have a very basic debit card from a credit union). All the airline points and discounts just strike me as marketing more than a real benefit. US Airlines keeps reminding me of the number of points I've forfeited by not using them enough... as if that will…
Having a premium membership on United for example lets you use expedited lines for checking luggage, security and boarding. In addition you get free checked luggage, better customer support and are more likely to get upgraded to first class and are all around treated better by United.
The next step for Square, in my opinion, is developing a reader for the EMV cards ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMV ), which is hugely dominant in Europe - and also more secure. See a this useful Quora post, from 12 months ago: http://www.quora.com/How-does-Square-intend-to-translate-the... Going international, or making such a reader, opens up an enormous market and the potential is huge. I'm waiting, excited, as I…
For merchants the biggest issue around chip and pin cards is this:
If the merchant takes a signature, then they are liable for loss incurred by bad transactions.
Which simply means, very few merchant accept signatures and only in exceptional circumstances.
So any EMV reader in Europe, to achieve adoption by merchants, will need to offer a PIN entry method.
However here is the other part of the deal.
A PIN entry keypad must be secure. In fact, the keys themselves cannot be implemented in software that exposes the key presses to any other software.
Usually this means that the hardware keyboard itself doesn't send keypresses to the OS, it is a dedicated piece of hardware (with screen) that only transmits the hash of the PIN to any external system.
In effect, Square would need to re-design their device to include a PIN entry keypad and screen.