Square Review: Credit Card Processing For Low-Volume Merchants

Contents

1 Square Features
- 1.1 POS Processing
2 Square Fees
3 Important Details
4 My Impressions

-Best Low Fee Credit Card Processor-

The combination of Square Payments and Square Point of Sale makes for an exceptional merchant services solution, especially for small business merchants and individual sellers with low-volume transactions. Square offers powerful features that are easy to use while being transparent and affordable.

Small businesses love the predictable costs and the fast setup, but larger businesses might have issues with the lack of stability that sometimes comes with Square’s payment processing.

SQUARE QUICK FACTS

POS Apps	Square POS Square Appointments Square for Retail Square for Restaurants
Hardware	Card readers, terminal and stand for standard, contactless and/or chip cards.
Free Basic Setup?	Square POS + standard Square Reader
Type of Processing Fee	Per transaction fee
Credit Cards Accepted	Visa Mastercard American Express Discover JCB UnionPay
Chargebacks	Square’s protection program will cover the costs of eligible chargebacks for up to $250/month. Even if you don’t win the claim.
Contract	Month-to-month
Early Termination Fee	No ETF

FEATURED IN CREDIT CARD PROCESSING

Chase Payment Solutions

Best direct processor for all sizes

In-Person Payments
2.6% rate +10¢ per tap, dip and swiped transaction. 3.5% rate +10¢ per keyed transaction
Online Invoices
2.90% and 25¢ per transaction
Read Our Review

Intuit Quickbooks Payments

Best for QuickBooks users

In-Person Payments
2.40% and 25¢ per transaction
Online Invoices
2.90% + 25¢ per transaction
Read Our Review

Square

Best low-fee mobile card processor

In-Person Payments
2.75% per transaction
Online Invoices
2.90% + 30¢ per transaction
Read Our Review

Square Features

For a free mobile processing system, Square is at the top of the market with free POS and back-office features that perform much better than the competition. The merchant services company also offers upgraded POS systems designed for retail and restaurant with eCommerce features.

POS Processing

Square has four separate point of sale apps – Square Register, Square Appointments, Square for Retail and Square for Restaurants. You can also integrate with another POS system if you want to.

SQUARE POINT OF SALESQUARE APPOINTMENTSSQUARE FOR RETAILSQUARE FOR RESTAURANTS

Probably the most powerful POS app you can get for free, the Square Point of Sale app is very user-friendly and rich with features that give you flexibility and power to run things the way you want to. Set tips and discounts, record cash and check transactions, handle split tenders and much more.

Cost: Free.

Previously a scheduling add-on, Square decided to turn it into a POS system that links to your calendar, appointment booking and payments. Currently, it’s only available for iOS, but Square will also make it Android-compatible in the near future.

Cost: No monthly fee for individuals, 2.75% per transaction.

A more advanced POS for retail businesses with big inventories. It’s only compatible with iPads and features a user-interface that is designed for searching and scanning.

Cost: $60/month/location, $20/month for additional register, 2.5% + $0.10 per transaction.

In 2018, Square unveiled its newest specialized POS system with a focus on full-service businesses. It’s got a completely different user interface than Square for Retail with extremely customizable features and much more hands-on support.

Cost: $60/month/location, $40/month for additional register, 2.6% + $0.10 per transaction.

Square Fees

HARDWARE FEESPROCESSING FEESSUBSCRIPTION 30-DAY FREE TRIAL

Square’s claim-to-fame is its great hardware and the pricing that goes along with it. If you have your own device, you are welcome to use it, as long as it’s compatible with Square of course. You also have the option to buy iPads and other POS hardware from Square which guarantees compatibility.

Nowadays, Square offers a variety of readers, packages and accessories:

Hardware	Cost	Details
Square Reader	Free	Swipes all major credit cards. All accounts come with a reader.
Square Reader for chip cards	$35	Accepts credit & debit cards.
Square Reader for contactless & chip cards	$49	Accepts EMV chip cards and NFC payments.
Square Terminal	$399 or $37/mo for 12 months	Takes payments and prints or emails receipts with an all-in-one device.
Square Stand for contactless & chip cards	$169	Complete your countertop with this stylish and secure iPad POS stand.

Square’s pricing is quite simple. All you have to pay attention to is its basic processing fees. You don’t have to worry about interchange-plus pricing or pricing tiers.

Transaction Type	Per Transaction Fee
Square Point of Sale	2.75%
Square Terminal	2.6% + $0.10
Square Register	2.5% + $0.10
Square for Restaurants	2.6% + $0.10
Square for Retail	2.5% + $0.10
Keyed-in card payments	3.5% + $0.15

Next day deposits is included. If you want instant deposit, you’ll need to pay a 1% fee.

Square currently offers the following paid services:

Square Appointments
Square Payroll
Square Marketing

Square Loyalty
Subscription-based integrations

Employee Management
Square for Retail

Try any of Square’s subscription services (except Square Payroll) free for 30 days. You can unsubscribe from a Square Subscription at any time during your free trial. After the trial ends, you’ll have the option to continue or discontinue the service.

Important Details

CUSTOMER SUPPORT & SATISFACTIONDRAWBACKS

As you can see in the above section, Square is super transparent when it comes to fees and rates. What’s more, the merchant services company has great information online, posts helpful content, and knows how to use social media to interact with its customers.

You’ll find the answers to most of your questions in the online user manual. If you need more help, you can try searching or posting in the Square Seller Community. You’ll also want to bookmark www.issquareup.com. It’s a useful site which will tell you if any of Square’s services is having technical issues.

The most common issue customers have with Square has to do with account stability and funding holds. The merchant services company has pretty aggressive fraud prevention measures. When a business has been flagged, which can happen for any number of reasons, the merchant won’t be able to access its income. A big part of the issue here is that Square does not thoroughly explain the risks involved in third-party processing.

Due to the nature of Square’s agreements with its processors, the company cannot disclose why it terminates accounts in specific detail. Based on BBB complaints, when your account is suspended, you’ll get a notification that a payment has violated the terms of service and that your business model is high-risk or unsupported. Your account may be reactivated if you can submit the required documents, but that doesn’t always happen. You can receive a termination notice, even after providing verification information. This notice is final, and Square will withhold funds for up to six months to cover any chargebacks before releasing the money to you.

My Impressions

Square makes credit card payments accessible to the average Joe. It’s an affordable solution that offers a wide range of features to help merchants with their growing business. If you process payments every once in a while, or if you have a low volume of transactions every month, Square is a great solution.

Mid-sized to large businesses can also benefit from using Square, however, these merchants might want to consider a direct processor like Chase Payment Solutions to negotiate better pricing for your needs. See our Square Vs. Chase Payment Solutions review.

If your business offers “high-risk” products or services, which Square prohibits, then you should go with another merchant services provider instead.

Read Our Other Merchant Services Provider Reviews