Paper or Plastic: The Age of Cash is Over
Remember those Visa commercials that show the one guy slowing down everyone by using cash? Who carries real money these days? Let’s face it, we’re a plastic society. Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey hopes to bank on this trend with his new company Square which allows merchants and individuals accept payment from credit (and other) cards using a mobile phone. With the growing popularity of smartphones it will be a huge hit.
Here’s how it works:
It is amazing how easy it is. Simply buy their $1 app from the App Store, sign up for service, and they will send you a small hardware dongle that will swipe credit cards (shown right). No individual merchant account is required as Square UP handles all the processing and payments and takes a 2.9% cut of all sales.
Plugging into the headphone jack of either an iPhone or iPod Touch, the dongle takes a swipe of your card, the seller enters the purchase data and you do your best third grade (finger paint style) signature on the touchscreen. After that, a receipt is delivered by email and the app retains geotagging data for each transaction.
Imagine having the little neighborhood boy swipe your card at his lemonade stand or paying with your card at a garage sale. It’s pretty obvious that the age of cash is over.
Here’s a demo video from Square:
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