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Square is most often pitched as heaven for small businesses, but that 2.75 percent cut per transaction is sometimes a problem for stores that are too successful. Enter a new flat rate option. Shops that don’t take more than $250,000 a year in Square payments, or charge more than $400 in a given sale, can instead pay a flat $275 per month regardless of how many swipes they take. The deal makes the most sense for businesses handling more than $120,000 a year through the reader, establishing a definite limit to its usefulness; this isn’t exactly for a budding jeweler (or Starbucks). Even so, the simplicity of the rate might be very alluring for companies that aren’t keen on surprise costs or working out the math, and it’s a contrast to the half-steps towards flat rates taken by VeriFone and other, more traditional outlets going mobile.

Continue reading Square intros flat-rate payment option at $275 per month, hits small business sweet spot

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds, Tablet PCs, Internet

Square intros flat-rate payment option at $275 per month, hits small business sweet spot originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 16 Aug 2012 15:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve already seen Passbook, Apple’s new mobile wallet solution that pulls all of your loyalty cards and tickets into one spot. It will debut in iOS 6, and now the company has earned a new patent for NFC travel check-ins, which is essentially the travel portion of what we know exists. More »

Poland and Germany could be the next two countries to get smartphone payments, powered by MasterCard and Deutsche Telekom. The SIM-based NFC solution will utilize the US bank’s ClickandBuy service for processing and will be available to T-Mobile customers, rolling out to Poland in Q3 of this year and Germany in 2013. This latest partnership comes on the heels of Vodafone’s pairing with Visa, which is also said to be making a push for the German market. What remains to be seen is whether or not there is in fact a demand for mobile payments — the technology has yet to take off in the US, despite an influx of funding and infrastructure from MasterCard and Google. NFC is no doubt the future of cashless transactions, but it likely remains a few years away from hitting the mainstream, with compatible devices still limited, on both the customer and retail fronts. Hit up the links below for a closer look at DT’s push to conquer the European market, one NFC-equipped SIM card at a time. Then jump past the break for a quick intro, compliments of Deutsche Telekom CEO Rene Obermann and MasterCard CEO Ajay Banga (the two seemingly random gentlemen that you may have noticed above as well).

Continue reading MasterCard and T-Mobile to bring NFC payments to Europe in Q3 (video)

MasterCard and T-Mobile to bring NFC payments to Europe in Q3 (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 02 Jul 2012 09:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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