Mobile Payment Magazine

Top Mobile Payment Solutions without Startup Costs

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The ability to process credit cards using a mobile device is gaining well-deserved attention across the credit card processing industry. Joseph Brady, an avid entrepreneur in various industries since 2006 and featured writer for BizOffice.com, recently updated business owners on the available mobile processors.

Square Credit Card Processing, the major name in mobile credit card processing, has gained a large following since Jack Dorsey the co-founder of twitter also became a founder and CEO of Square. Receiving slightly less press but nevertheless major players in the mobile processing world, Pay Anywhere and Inuit GoPayment are making major strides to accommodate their customers.

Brady ranks Pay Anywhere as number one for mobile payment solutions “with no startup costs, monthly minimum, monthly service fee, competitive rates, multi- device platforms, and very few complaints with the Better Business Bureau Pay” (http://www.bizoffice.com/top-three-mobile-payment-solutions). The swiped rate with their free credit card reader is 2.69%; keyed transactions are priced at 3.49% and $0.19 per transaction.

Intuit GoPayment, listed second for mobile processing solutions by Brady, is a reliable source for both Android and iPhone devices. The benefits for Inuit GoPayment match Pay Anywhere for the most part; Brady finds their competitive edge in their service for both low and high volume merchants. Brady suggests those who process a low volume seriously consider Inuit since no “monthly minimum opens up the market of people who would like to process cards from time to time but not enough to justify the monthly fees that come along with a typical merchant account.”

Compatible with Android, iPad and iPhone devices, Square is rated third because of the degree of restrictions it places on its users. Square lacks customer service and keyed transactions, a constant necessity when swiping falls, is placed within a monthly minimum. Exceeding that minimum results in keyed transactions funds being held for thirty days, a major hindrance to up and coming businesses.

Mobile payment solutions are hitting the processing industry with force. The convenience for customers to pay and quickly have businesses run their credit cards is beneficial on both ends of the payment. Brady’s insight into the mobile processing world is highly appreciated. His ideas in full are found on the Biz Office website at http://www.bizoffice.com/top-three-mobile-payment-solutions.

Source: BizOffice.com.

Merchant Buy-in Is Key to Success of Mobile Payment Growth

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Aspiring mobile payment service companies should engage with retailers in determining market requirements to enable mobile phone-initiated payments and services at the retail point of sale.

According to a recent survey from Sybase 365, 40% of survey respondents cited the main inhibitor of widespread mobile payment adoption was a lack of coordination between key stakeholders, including mobile operators, merchants, payment processors, banks and developers. The call for an organized approach to engaging retailers comes from  VeriFone Systems, Inc., the leading payment solutions provider in the United States. The company urges mobile payment industry participants to be careful of causing confusion or alienating merchants to the emerging technologies of mobile payment.

“This isn’t just an issue of adding an NFC reader, it requires deep software richness at the point-of-sale to interact with the smartphone and manage a services-based model encompassing new applications and deployments without disrupting operation of existing card systems.”

Responding to growing interest from major industry players intent on claiming a stake in emerging mobile commerce opportunities, VeriFone CEO Douglas G. Bergeron articulated key guidelines to ensure that mobile payments don’t follow the path of previous alternative payment schemes that only succeeded in alienating merchants. VeriFone supplies a large majority of card payment solutions employed in the U.S. by retailers large and small and over the past 30 years has led the way in retail adoption of new payment technologies.

“Emerging mobile payments platforms represent a leap forward in electronic payment transactions, but those who want to claim leadership in this space have to reconcile merchant resistance to the imposition of costs to implement new infrastructure that will be managed an increasingly complex environment,” Bergeron said.

“The retail point of sale represents a point of convergence for smartphone-initiated payments, social networking and electronic couponing, but it won’t happen if retailers are expected, on faith, to absorb the costs of making it work,” Bergeron added. “This isn’t just an issue of adding an NFC reader, it requires deep software richness at the point-of-sale to interact with the smartphone and manage a services-based model encompassing new applications and deployments without disrupting operation of existing card systems.”

Bergeron outlined six key “rules” that industry participants need to adhere to in order to ensure success of mobile commerce:

Rule #1: “Deployment and management of complex NFC technologies will require significant ongoing services from the retailer’s payment systems provider. Until retailers are assured of receiving real value from mobile commerce, service providers who stand to gain from either carrier fees, advertising revenue or transaction charges must be willing to bear the costs of this highly disruptive paradigm shift.”

Rule #2: “Mobile commerce must add value to the consumer. Tapping a phone is a gimmick, no different from tapping a card or fob. In addition to providing the ability to pay for stuff by phone, service providers and retailers need to provide real additional value –- such as coupons, loyalty rewards and discounts — for consumers to leave their wallets at home.

Rule #3: “Mobile commerce must be streamlined with existing POS services and managed well for the retailer. Retailers won’t tolerate the need for multiple methods of acceptance to accommodate what will become a wide array of mobile commerce schemes. All ideas, regardless of where or who generates them, must converge at a unified point-of-sale.”

Rule #4: “Mobile commerce must go from zero to 90 mph in five seconds. Consumers will not embrace mobile commerce without the confidence that it is being widely accepted. If it only works at a few select retailers, it dies a quick death. Ten percent acceptance is not sustainable.”

Rule #5: “Mobile commerce must be integrated with other forms of payment. Mobile commerce won’t lead to the quick death of plastic cards and must work with existing payment systems that are certified by all major processors and installed in the vast majority of large and small retailers.”

Rule #6: “Mobile commerce must be ironclad secure. Security, both real and perceived, is imperative to the adoption and sustainability of mobile commerce. Even minor setbacks in security could compromise consumer adoption and stop the movement in its tracks.

Bergeron’s rules are based on years of experience working with retailers to implement payment technologies and adapt to changing security requirements. As the trusted supplier of payment solutions, VeriFone has the ability to work with retailers and service providers in assessing market requirements and integrating existing infrastructure with complex new technologies required to make mobile commerce work smoothly.

via VeriFone Says Merchant Buy-In Key to Success of Mobile Commerce | Business Wire.

Sage Launches New Mobile Payments Product

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Sage Payment Solutions, the payments division for Sage North America, has announced the availability of Sage Mobile Payments. The Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliant mobile payments product comes bundled with a Sage merchant account to allow SMBs to expand their payment options by accepting credit and debit cards on 400+ types of mobile phones and computing devices, across all major wireless carriers. Sage Payment Solutions is offering Sage Mobile Payments for a nominal set-up fee, a monthly fee as low as $10.95, and no incremental mobile processing or transaction fees. The product is also available with an optional, end-to-end encrypted card reader (card swiper).

The solution offers small and midsized businesses (SMBs) the ability to process mobile payments, with no additional transaction fee surcharges, and the system will offer seamless integration to a wide range of business management systems.

“SMBs need to look at total cost of ownership when it comes to selecting a mobile payments solution,” said Greg Hammermaster, president of Sage Payment Solutions. “Some competing mobile payments offerings add 1 percent plus upwards of 37 cents to the processing fees, which can easily turn into well over $130 in extra fees for every $10,000 in credit card volume. While this pricing is good for individuals that don’t process a lot of credit card transactions, it can be quite costly for businesses using their mobile device to process credit cards on a regular basis.”

Sage Payment Solutions believes that the most cost-effective mobile payments offering for an SMB customer consists of a reasonable monthly fee and no additional transaction fee surcharges. “In the end, we don’t view the mobile device as a profit center,” said Hammermaster. “Mobile payments is an important solution in our suite to help customers expand their sales channels and generate revenues.”

Sage Mobile Payments is available with an optional card reader (card swiper), with end-to-end encryption from the card reader device to the application. “End-to-end encryption for any payment transaction is now a requirement in the business community, and Sage Payment Solutions is committed to meeting that demand,” said Hammermaster.

Sage Mobile Payments is PCI compliant, and adheres to the highest possible standards in the payment industry. All customer data flowing through Sage Mobile Payments is encrypted before it leaves a customer’s cell phone; no personal data is retained on the phone or mobile computing device.

Sage Mobile Payments will soon seamlessly integrate to Sage Exchange, a secure, Payment Card Industry (PCI) certified payments platform that can automatically update a numerous Sage-developed accounting, enterprise resource planning (ERP), fundraising, medical practice management, and billing and time tracking systems with payments data to help eliminate the cost, hassle, and inaccuracy associated with manual data entry. Sage Exchange also integrates with a number of third-party business management products and services.

The SMB Group, a research firm focused exclusively on researching and analyzing the highly fragmented SMB market, is currently conducting a Small and Medium (SMB) Business Payment Solutions Study. Preliminary data from that study shows that 3 percent of SMBs accept mobile payments today, and suggests that this number will increase to 7 percent in the next 12 months, and 16 percent by the end of 2012.

“A business of virtually any size can benefit from the ability to process mobile payments,” said Sanjeev Aggarwal, founder and partner of The SMB Group. “From larger companies with employees in the field, to micro-businesses exhibiting at trade fairs, all need to process payments and do business on-the-go. Sage Payment Solutions seems to have figured out that mobile payment products are business tools, not gadgets. The company is providing small and midsized businesses with an affordable solution, without charging a premium for using it.”

As announced in October 2010, Sage Payment Solutions has partnered with ROAM Data, an industry leader in mobile commerce solutions, to bring Sage Mobile Payments to market. The product works with Apple’s iPhone and iPad, Motorola’s DROID phones, and Research in Motion’s BlackBerry, plus hundreds of other mobile devices. Using Sage Mobile Payments, businesses and organizations can:

  • Quickly and securely process credit and debit card orders, with real-time authorization;
  • Use an optional low-cost, secure card reader;
  • Log cash orders, download reports online, and email receipts to their customers;
  • Rapidly change applications or add features to mobile apps that may benefit them; and
  • * Experience seamless integration with their Sage accounting, ERP, fundraising products, plus other third-party products.
  • Pricing and Availability

Source: Marketwire

CHARGE Anywhere Releases Mobile POS Payment App for Android

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CHARGE Anywhere has released an updated payment application for Android smartphones. The app accepts multiple tender types–in addition to credit card payments, the CHARGE Anywhere mobile payment app can facilitate cash transactions, check transactions and ACH payments.

“Merchants can increase their cash flow and their customer satisfaction by accepting every available payment type from a mobile phone,” said Dmitriy Lerman, Director of Marketing at CHARGE Anywhere.

The app is available for Android smartphones and Android tablets, such as the Samsung Galaxy, and allows businesses to complete cash and check sales on the app for free, according to Paul Sabella, President and CEO of CHARGE Anywhere.

There’s also an optional Bluetooth card reader/receipt printer. The battery-operated, peripheral device generates a printed receipt at the point-of-sale. Receipts can also be emailed to customers.

CHARGE Anywhere’s mobile payment software and payment gateway solutions are supported by all major card processors in the US and Canada.

The application can be downloaded from the Android Market.

Source: PR Newswire

Square Inc. Signing Up 30,000+ New Accounts Per Month

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Jessica Guynn of the Los Angeles Times interviewed Square COO Keith Rabois about Square’s latest round of funding,  which according to some sources puts the company valuation at over $240 million. According to Rabois, the company has “been signing up 30,000 to 40,000 new accounts per month and the pace is accelerating.”  Not bad!

Square provides a  new platform to accept debit and credit cards on a mobile devices. The Square product is a small (square) piece of hardware that attaches to mobile devices (e.g., smartphone, laptop). It’s basically a small card reader that allows merchants to swipe a customer’s credit card and complete a mobile transaction from virtually anywhere.

Before the company launched, Square Inc. raised $10 million,  with a valuation of $40 million. The lead investor of the $10 million round was Khosla Ventures.

At first blush the current $240 million valuation may seem rich for an enterprise that launched just over a year ago, but given that one of the company’s co-founders is Jack Dorsey, best known as the creator of Twitter, a blockbuster success is not out of the question.

In the Los Angeles Times blog post, Guynn asks: “How do you increase awareness of Square?”

According to Dorsey, “Historically the way people have found out about Square is that they pay a merchant at the farmers market with it and decide they want to get it themselves or they read about it on Twitter or in media coverage. But we have not engaged in traditional marketing campaigns. We are going to invest in marketing. You will see that go live in January. It’s a big task to ensure that the 180 million people who carry plastic in their wallets know about Square.How has adoption of Square grown since October, when you launched to the public?We have been signing up 30,000 to 50,000 new accounts per month and the pace is accelerating.” (via: Lost Angeles Times)

Square Versus Intuit GoPayment: Mobile Payment Comparison

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For business that want to accept credit card payments through their smartphones, there are quite a few choices available. Two leading contenders are Square and Intuit’s GoPayment. Both services offer this feature, but there are some differences that may sway your decision on which one is best for you.

For example, GoPayment requires a credit check, square does not. Intuit’s free reader supports the iPhone, and Square currently supports only Android or IOS devices.

Business Insider provides a good side-to-side comparison chart of these two services.

More information: Business Insider.

North American Bancard (NAB) Launches Pay Anywhere Mobile Payment App

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North American Bancard (NAB) announced  today the  launch of its Pay Anywhere mobile payment application, which allows users to process credit card payments via mobile devices. NAB currently processes more than $10 billion in electronic transactions annually for more than 100,000 merchants nationwide.

“Until now people have had to compromise when picking a mobile payment option. While some are flashy and free, they can lack critical financial and security resources on the back-end. Others offer the reliability many consumers want, but are cost-prohibitive,” said Marc Gardner, NAB founder and president.

“Pay Anywhere is the first to offer the best of both worlds – superior hardware and technology, ease-of-use, an affordable pay-as-you-go platform and the peace-of-mind that comes with NAB’s nearly 20 years of credit card processing experience.”

The Pay Anywhere application is free from Apple’s App Store. Upon approval of a merchant account, the card reader accessory, which usually retails for $149.95, also will be given to users free. The card reader is included so that users can swipe cards to receive lower transaction rates.

Pay Anywhere’s application is backed by 24/7 support, NAB’s 400-person staff and nearly 20 years of credit card processing experience. Pay Anywhere uses the highest available level of encryption and the strictest standards of payment card industry security.

Cost and Fees:

  • No setup fees
  • No application fees
  • No monthly service fees
  • No cancellation fees at any time
  • No monthly minimums required

Pay Anywhere charges a flat fee of 19 cents per transaction, and 2.69% and 3.49%  in service costs for swiped and keyed entries, respectively.
The Pay Anywhere application is currently available for Apple iPhone 3G, 3GS and 4 users, as well as the Apple iPad and iPod Touch, and will soon be available for Android and BlackBerry mobile customers. The card reader accessory is currently available for iPhone 3G and 3GS, with an audio jack accessory for iPhone 4, the iPad and iPod Touch coming soon. Pay Anywhere accepts all major credit cards.

The free Pay Anywhere app can be set up in a few minutes. Pay Anywhere users can set default tax and tip percentages, inventory and categorize items and services, take advantage of real-time sales tracking and reporting and “go green” with custom e-mail receipts.

“We want Pay Anywhere users to be confident every time they sell a product or service or pay for one, so we made the same NAB professional resources and expertise that our business customers receive accessible to everyone,” continued Gardner. “In addition to the free app and free reader, Pay Anywhere merchants will only pay when they use the service. If their business is seasonal and they process transactions only three months of the year, they pay nothing for the other nine months.”

More information: Pay Anywhere

Harnessing Mobile Commerce to Close In-Store Sales

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Shoppers who have in the past turned to the Internet for their research before heading to brick-and-mortar stores are increasingly melding their online and in-store shopping with the exploding popularity of mobile applications for use on smartphones.

Now shoppers can actually get instant price comparisons online based on their scans of in-store bar codes. For merchants who have the customers in their stores, a mobile sales and marketing strategy can help win over an increasingly “mobile” customer. [Read more…]

Hypercom M5000 Mobile Payment Terminal Announced

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Hypercom’s new M5000 mobile payment terminal is a  hand mobile payment system with a 3.5” color icon-capable touchscreen. The device offers cutting edge mobility, communications and connectivity options available and an integrated contactless reader let merchants accept any type of card payment.  The device is initially supporting GPRS and Bluetooth connectivity.

The mobile payment system is powered by a 266 MHz standard, 400 MHz optional processor, and includes up to 500MB of memory. The processor combined with a touch screen can drive a wide variety of payment or non-payment applications, such as icon-based integration with inventory management or menu ordering systems, and the M5000 includes a software development toolkit for development efficiency and applications portability across the entire Hypercom next generation portfolio.

“Merchants demand payment products that not only expedite the secure transmission of vital transaction data, but also serve as a platform to deliver value-added services to customers, independent of location,” said William Rossiter, Vice President, Global Marketing, Hypercom Corporation. “With our M5000 mobile payment system, we introduce the second in a series of products that run on our next generation platform, include our industry-leading security, deliver the latest features and technology for the lowest total cost of ownership, and thus will enable merchants to deliver new services to their customers today, and well into the future.”

The new M5000 delivers the same unprecedented levels of security as the company’s revolutionary L5000 multilane payment system. It is designed to meet current and future PCI PTS, EMV, ZKA, APACS, JTMS and other global and country-specific security requirements, and features the payment industry’s widest array of high security data encryption technologies. Unlike competitor products, Hypercom’s full X509 Public Key Infrastructure HyperSafe® security layer is also directly embedded in these terminals to protect them and their applications from hacking and malware attacks. All systems also incorporate Hypercom’s HyperSafe Remote Key System for quick and secure payment terminal key injection at the merchant’s location.

Hypercom Corporation (NYSE: HYC) today introduced the M5000 mobile payment terminal, the next generation multipurpose mobile payment system whose futureproof features will protect the investments of a broad spectrum of merchants worldwide, from hotels and restaurants to taxis and delivery companies.

“By bringing to market futureproof systems like the L5000 and M5000, we safeguard our customers’ investments in the fast changing world of payment acceptance and open the door for customers to generate revenue with value-added services, even without payment. Merchants demand payment products that not only expedite the secure transmission of vital transaction data, but also serve as a platform to deliver value-added services to customers, independent of location,” said William Rossiter, Vice President, Global Marketing, Hypercom Corporation. “With our M5000 mobile payment system, we introduce the second in a series of products that run on our next generation platform, include our industry-leading security, deliver the latest features and technology for the lowest total cost of ownership, and thus will enable merchants to deliver new services to their customers today, and well into the future.”

The new M5000 is designed to meet current and future PCI PTS, EMV, ZKA, APACS, JTMS and other global and country-specific security requirements, and features the payment industry’s widest array of high security data encryption technologies. Hypercom’s full X509 Public Key Infrastructure HyperSafe security layer is also directly embedded in these terminals to protect them and their applications from hacking and malware attacks. All systems also incorporate Hypercom’s HyperSafe Remote Key System for quick and secure payment terminal key injection at the merchant’s location.

Source: Business Wire