Amazon mobile card reader $10 (special 1.75% per swipe until Jan)

[Kaido]

Pretty awesome new mobile payments system from Amazon:

http://localregister.amazon.com/

Synopsis on Engadget:

http://www.engadget.com/2014/08/13/amazon-square-rival/

This is a competitor to Square (and Paypal). This is great if you do stuff like computer work on the side & people want to pay you by card instead of cash. Their fee is 2.5% per swipe, which is lower than both Square & Paypal, and they're running a special until January of 1.75% per swipe.

It works on the iPhone, iPad, Galaxy, and Kindle Fire phones & tablets. No monthly fee, long-term contract, fee for chargebacks, fee for reunds, or fee for international cards. Lots of accessories like cases & stands, receipt printers, and cash drawers if you want to get more serious about it. Also, they'll credit your first $10 in processing fees, which essentially makes the card reader "free".

 

[gorcorps]

Interesting that it covers the popular phones, but I wonder what the hang-up is with working on more Android phones. Does Square or Paypal have the same limitations (only work on Samsung phones)?

 

[Kaido]

Interesting that it covers the popular phones, but I wonder what the hang-up is with working on more Android phones. Does Square or Paypal have the same limitations (only work on Samsung phones)?

I was wondering about that too; my guess is that it's generically designed to work with a standard flat device lip that has a headphone jack on it. Some devices have curved lips or differently-placed headphones jacks, so I'm sure the software will work, it's probably just more of a matter of getting the card reader to clamp or sit on.

I have the Square card reader & it is smaller & sticks out more off the phone. It works with any iOS device (running iOS 6 or later) & any Android device (smartphones need 2.3 & tablets need 3.2), so I'm guessing it's a hardware-related decision to advertise the Amazon version that way.

I think Amazon just took over the mobile payments market though - those prices are great, plus they already have all of the accessories ready to go (receipt printers, kiosk stand, etc.). I have a lot of friends who use this in the food market; people are always looking for something easier, cheaper, and with everything read to go. One pick-your-own farm I visit has the Square tablet register, which is awesome - you swipe your card on the bottom of the display, then sign on the screen, all done! No one has to be tech-savvy to operate it (owner or customer), which is a really nice design feature.

 

[JL514]

Hmmm....

I guess it's probably not worth it to swipe 10k+/mo w/ my 2% cb card...

 

[MistaFreeze]

I got my Square reader for free but the small percentage processing fee increase vs this new Amazon would definitely offset that. Still, I think if Amazon wants to really knock it out of the park they should give away the reader for free like Square does on their website. People get screwed over when they actually buy the Square from places like Walgreens or cell phone providers.

 

[gorcorps]

I got my Square reader for free but the small percentage processing fee increase vs this new Amazon would definitely offset that. Still, I think if Amazon wants to really knock it out of the park they should give away the reader for free like Square does on their website. People get screwed over when they actually buy the Square from places like Walgreens or cell phone providers.

Your $10 for the Amazon thing is really just a deposit. You get it back when you use it. Since these things do cost something to produce, I understand that they don't want to just give these things away to anybody who raises their hand.

 

[gorcorps]

Looking at the reviews it seems Amazon has made it more complicated than necessary. Looks like this card reader only works for Amazon business accounts, which most people don't have. So you either have to create a new account with a different email, or you have to call them to change your current account to a business one (I guess you can't do that online).

 

[Kaido]

Looking at the reviews it seems Amazon has made it more complicated than necessary. Looks like this card reader only works for Amazon business accounts, which most people don't have. So you either have to create a new account with a different email, or you have to call them to change your current account to a business one (I guess you can't do that online).

I'm interested to see how it pans out. I've had a good experience with Amazon Payments & use it more than Google Wallet, but not as much as Paypal. But we all know Paypal's reputation, so...yeah.

 

[Lazarus52980]

If they had it available for windows phones I would get one...