Square Is Discontinuing Monthly Pricing On February 1, 2014

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Square Is Discontinuing Monthly Pricing On February 1, 2014

Posted by Unknown on Saturday November 9, 2013 @08:05PM from the something-about-being-easier dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Mobile payment startup Square has decided to discontinue its monthly pricing option on February 1, 2014. The company says it does not plan to reinstate monthly pricing at any point. If you are currently enrolled in monthly pricing, Square will give you "a grace period" through the end of January 2014, after which the per-swipe rate will apply to transactions. On January 2, monthly pricing subscribers will be billed their last monthly fee, which will cover the rest of the month."

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wut? by AntiBasic · 2013-11-09 20:09 · Score: 2, Interesting

wut?
1. Re:wut? by digitalchinky · 2013-11-09 20:27 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  It appears to be some kind of slashvertizement for a mobile credit card reader that plugs in to the headphone jack of an iphone.
2. Re:wut? by Anonymous Coward · 2013-11-09 20:53 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  I personally don't think equiangular polygons should have the right to decide pricing schemes. IMNSHO humans, and only humans, should be able to make choices like that. Otherwise what's next, a glorified calculator deciding when to fire people? It's wrong, I say, WRONG!
3. Re:wut? by larry+bagina · 2013-11-10 05:03 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  And you made it humorous for a third:
  Square
  1. (n; adj) A person who is regarded as dull, rigidly conventional, and out of touch with current trends.
  
  --
  Do you even lift?
  These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
Big deal. by viperidaenz · 2013-11-09 20:22 · Score: 3, Informative

It's a hit to larger companies, not smaller ones.
Switching from $275/mo flat rate to 2.75% means if you're selling more than $120,000pa, you pay more, if you're selling less, you pay less.
next story please.
1. Re:Big deal. by aaronb1138 · 2013-11-09 21:19 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  Really a good sized hit to small to middle sized businesses.. you know the mom & pop shops, indie food trucks (the minority) and such that manage to support 2-5 people with corporate incomes of 250k-2m per year.
  
  A small company with CC swipes of $120k / year with an assumption CCs only being half their income, and the rest cash or invoices (checks), barely supports 1 person if the net margins are very high, in the 20-40% range and tax sheltering is very good.
  
  Glad to see how well educated the techie community is on basic finance and business concepts.
  
  Of course, we know that with the standard margin in CC processing being 3% for many years, it was very expected by any reasonable person that Square would ditch flat rates once they had little enough competition and a large enough base.
2. Re:Big deal. by peragrin · 2013-11-10 01:04 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  and yet you know nothing of how much a business needs to earn to pay a single person $40k a year.
  Just because the company has $120,000 in revuene, doesn't mean the owner earned $120k. Now you have to take off expenses which is on that figure probably close to 95% of it.(depending on how the equipment was purchased)
  
  --
  i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
3. Re:Big deal. by squiggleslash · 2013-11-10 01:16 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  I suspect he's right. While many Slashdotters have experience of being contractors, and setting up a small business to legally manage that, that's not typical of a normal small business which will generally involve: a small number of employees, but more than one; rent; non-trivial supplies; capital costs; etc. A single person business who works out of a laptop and smartphone and has no other costs other than travel isn't unusual but it's not typical.
  Think in terms of what it costs to run a pizzaria, one of the classic small businesses. You have yourself, you have a group of employees to the point you generally have a minimum of two on duty (besides yourself) during opening hours, more at busy periods. You need to rent a shop, which doesn't have to be huge, but it'll cost considerably more than those cheap single room "offices" you see advertised as "starting at $500/month!" by the road. And, of course, you need flour, water, anchovies... oh and gas, and electric, and phone service, and advertising and printing...
  Now, this doesn't mean going into pizza making forces you to live in poverty or go bankrupt, far from it, because pizza is popular, and people are willing to pay quite a bit for a decent pizza. Or even half decent pizza. That's why there are so many pizza chains. But the question isn't "why doesn't pizza make a profit", it's "How much turnover do you need before Square's monthly rate becomes better and does a typical small business qualify", and it seems hard to believe that an average pizzaria has a turnover so low it wouldn't qualify. Even if the franchisee, at the end of the day, goes home with a salary of $50,000, that's just one small part of the costs.
  
  --
  You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
4. Re:Big deal. by viperidaenz · 2013-11-10 06:34 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Selling $120k through this single method of payment.
5. Re:Big deal. by Ksevio · 2013-11-10 06:52 · Score: 2
  
  $120,000 per year is only around $500 per work day (~$330/day). You don't have to have a large business to hit that amount
6. Re:Big deal. by viperidaenz · 2013-11-10 10:50 · Score: 2
  
  Again, this is via a single method of payment.You don't have to be a large business to accept cash, cheque or invoice.
Swipe? by thegarbz · 2013-11-09 20:22 · Score: 4, Insightful

So after many years of regulations, encryptions, standards, tamper proof systems, migrating from a magnetic strip to the chip and pin for even greater security, this company's innovation pisses all that against the wall?
Man... I would not do business with anyone who wants to swipe my credit card through an iPad.
1. Re:Swipe? by Anonymous Coward · 2013-11-09 20:50 · Score: 2, Informative
  
  In just over 1 year you won't have to. At least in Canada, after 2015 debit card companies will no longer need to include a magstripe unless they really want to. I expect credit card companies will follow suit quickly. Magstripe fraud is costing both huge amounts.
  At that point square's equipment will be as good as garbage. I'm sure as a backup for places that refuse to upgrade they'll still be able to take imprints, just like 50 years ago.
2. Re:Swipe? by gl4ss · 2013-11-09 21:29 · Score: 2
  
  *So does the US. But in both places, where you can use them is quite limited. The idea that Europe is ahead on contactless payments is ludicrous.*
  hong kong had the best system of places where I've been. could pay at 7/11, the metro and lots of other places. and you got the deposit back when leaving.
  however.. square has little point to exist in areas where the payment service providers provide you with mobile terminals. in finland practically all cc readers in smaller shops are of the variety that uses cellphone network for connection and has a battery.. we use them for chip+pin payments everywhere. even snack kiosks, pizza deliveries and what have you have them. 100% of kebab establishments have them too.
  even so much that I think people would think twice or thrice before letting a delivery boy or random dude read their card with a reader attached to a cellphone and give their pin..........
  
  --
  world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
3. Re:Swipe? by thegarbz · 2013-11-09 22:56 · Score: 2
  
  No he shouldn't. Not unless he's willing to buy/lease a proper solution from his bank which embraces the proper security protocols established by the industry. A lot of effort has been put into card readers to make them safe from tampering by the merchant themselves. Not just software either. Simply opening one of the card readers will completely brick them. Want to access the circuit board without opening by drilling into the side? Nope that'll typically trigger a trip grid around the inside of it.
  The only thing that is utter nonsense is that we've pissed all advances in security against the wall by releasing a device that reads a mag stripe (I'm not sure this is actually accepted in some countries anymore), and that has only a bit of software separating a potential fraudster from a credit card. I'm not worried about the transaction being illegitimate and your brother being out of pocket, I'm worried about potential fraud by your brother (who I don't know at all and thus could very well be into that).
  There's a reason chip+pin was introduced and that was to separate a merchant even more from the customer's credit card. Now there's no reason for you to hand your card over to the waitress anymore and wait while she disappears with it in the back room. The signal going via the cell isn't the issue, the issue is the hardware itself. Yes I consider it as illegitimate as someone taking a card imprint, something which would also make me drop the goods right there and walk away.
  The merchant should not have access to a card either physically or via a non-tamper-proof and non-certified piece of equipment. Period. Don't like it? Use cash.
4. Re:Swipe? by BKX · 2013-11-09 23:43 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  Simply opening one of the card readers will completely brick them.
  Probably not. I've repaired and/or replaced many keypads and phone jacks on CC terminals over the years. I've done this for readers made by several different companies and many levels of features, including Hypercom (the most popular brand), and terminals that have RFID readers and external pinpads. Opening them up has always been easy, and they accept my soldering iron and screwdrivers just fine. I doubt there's much in the way of tamper-proofing on the portable ones either, even though I've never worked on them, considering the lack of tamper-proofing on anything else they make.
5. Re:Swipe? by Joining+Yet+Again · 2013-11-09 23:56 · Score: 2
  
  And then you made purchases at various outlets in Prague, Adelaide and Ouagadougou, about 5 to 7 months ago.
6. Re:Swipe? by Ashe+Tyrael · 2013-11-10 01:03 · Score: 2
  
  Depends where you are I suspect. In the UK, all new cards over the last few years have been chip and pin.
  
  --
  "How fine you look when dressed in rage."
7. Re:Swipe? by colinnwn · 2013-11-10 02:12 · Score: 2
  
  In the USA my understanding was PCI requirements were going to make all companies switch to non-imprintable cards? All of my cards issued in the past year are completely flat.
8. Re:Swipe? by BitZtream · 2013-11-10 02:32 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  Thats because you utterly fail to understand any part of the process. This isn't insightful, its just the opposite, it shows ignorance.
  First off, the strip on your card, not encrypted in the first place, its just data. Encrypting it offers nothing of value as you would then just end the encrypted blob, which anyone could also copy and send. You can read it with a modified 8 track player and some software (this is essentially how square works) or any of the thousands of various card readers that hook up to a PC as if it were a keyboard.
  None of the data stays on the iPad, its simply forwarded off to squares servers to do the real work.
  Do you think its a better setup to do the card reading on a virus and malware infected PC instead, you know, one of those PCs that you run your card through every day at the gas station or restaurant you eat at instead of the walled garden that Apple built.
  If this bothers you, it just shows you're ignorant of the actual security concerns. You should be far far more concerned with the waiter or mcdonalds employee you hand your card through that can just snap a pic of it when you're not in sight.
  
  --
  Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
9. Re:Swipe? by TomGreenhaw · 2013-11-10 02:33 · Score: 2
  
  You would be better off if you only swiped through an iPad. All these iPad swipers are encrypted and tamper proof with decryption only possible at the card processor. The majority of the regular swipers you see at retailers do not use the end-to-end encryption.
  
  --
  Greed is the root of all evil.
10. Re:Swipe? by BitZtream · 2013-11-10 02:40 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  Square is fully PCI compliant because IT DOESN'T STORE YOUR INFORMATION and USES SSL TO TALK TO ITS SERVER. Thats ALL the security you get ANYWHERE on the client side IN THE BEST CASE situation.
  Stop spewing shit you know nothing about. 99.999% of the PCI rules are written around the fact that people STORE the credit card numbers. The instant you stop storing card information, PCI becomes ridiculously less complex.
  Welcome to what Square does ... it makes all the PCI compliance issues a problem for Square admins, and lets your business do business, not worry about IT.
  Chip + Pin might be great, but as has been said by others, I've NEVER seen one, so its not so great that the entire world snapped it up to save the billions in lost dollars ... did they?
  You live in a fantasy world, or I suspect is more likely, don't actually own any credit cards.
  Do you know that all the information you need to make a card transaction is ... VISIBLE ON THE CARD ... WITHOUT A CARD READER? Yes, thats right ... *gasp* they can just use the visible information on the card to take your money.
  
  --
  Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
11. Re:Swipe? by zero0ne · 2013-11-10 03:59 · Score: 2
  
  That's BS and you know it - US CC companies have some of the best fraud detection around...
  The second a charge on my CC goes through in a state I have never been or never lived in (or couldn't travel to within the time of my last legit charge), they are calling me and asking if the charge was valid.
  Last time I purchased something on eBay, I received the very same phone call because it was over $1,000
12. Re:Swipe? by Grishnakh · 2013-11-10 08:12 · Score: 2
  
  That's Canada. Canada is a much, much smaller market than the US. The US will hang onto magstripe technology for decades, maybe more. Just look at how backwards our banking systems are here: people still use paper checks, there's no electronic funds transfer without huge fees, there's no real use of crypto, etc. Look at Europe to see what banking should be like; we in the US are at least a century away from getting that kind of technology, with the rate of change here.
13. Re:Swipe? by HereIAmJH · 2013-11-10 12:23 · Score: 2
  
  The US card has neither a chip nor contactless capabilities AFAIK - it's a plain old magnetic strip. I would have serious issues actually trying to use that card back home (or in most other countries), as plenty of places simply won't take a swipe anymore.
  Chips and contactless cards have been available in the US for a long time. They just aren't universal. I had an Amex Blue card nearly 15 years ago that had a chip in it. And in 2005 they launched a contactless card. Discover also had an oddly shaped card a few years ago that was contactless. I don't think the chipped cards gained acceptance because retailers didn't want to change their readers, and I don't know if Visa or Mastercard ever made any effort to get chipped cards on the market. I wouldn't be surprised if contactless cards aren't widespread simply because they are contactless. I have seen quite a few chains install the contactless readers. But if I have to choose over a reader where I swipe my own card, or a contactless reader where I have no idea what the true range is, I'm going to choose to swipe.
  As far as Square's business model, you're focusing on the wrong part of the device. They are about giving small businesses the ability accept and process credit cards. They offer a mag reader because that is the most common device in the market that they are targeting. When they want to enter other markets they will simply create a new device that works through their current protocol. The card reader is a small part of their service, and I don't know why they would be limited to a single technology.
  
  --
  Another day, another update to a Google android app.
It is not flat by thsths · 2013-11-09 20:23 · Score: 3

I can see two problems with this statement:
It is not a flat fee.
And it is not per swipe.
In fact, it is a commission or a share.
Oh, and it is of course not a benefit for the customer, as much as square is wiggling around the issue. They remove a price plan, and thereby increases prices.
1. Re:It is not flat by kramerd · 2013-11-09 22:05 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  The plan was $275/month or 2.75% per swipe. However, the 275 per month was limited to the first $10,000 (ie $275 in fees). After this, it defaulted to the 2.75% anyway. Therefore, if you chose monthly, and didn't use it all, you actually paid a higher price. By definition, you could always just take the 2.75%, so I don't know why anyone would ever choose the monthly plan in the first place.
Advertisement by Anonymous Coward · 2013-11-09 20:28 · Score: 5, Insightful

This _might_ deserve a blurb in a payment industry trade rag, but why /.?
Are we covering all merchant fee plan changes in the that industry now?
in other words... by Anonymous Coward · 2013-11-09 20:36 · Score: 3, Informative

they're adopting the pricing scheme of every other payment processor, including paypal and intuit (both of which have a very similar device and service), google checkout (wallet) and ordinary credit card merchant accounts.
Re:Bitcoin fees... by Joining+Yet+Again · 2013-11-10 00:10 · Score: 2

The charges for anyone paying with hairs on my genitalia are also unchanged.
And that's a scarce resource produced at a decreasing rate, hard to counterfeit.
WHY AREN'T YOU ALL USING MY PUBES AS CURRENCY, LIBERTARIANS?