Square announces a new device, called Terminal, to replace old credit card machines.
https://seekingalpha.com/news/3398576-square-unveils-new-dev…
This market is changing so quickly.
Paypal also announces today they are expanding their strategic partnership with American Express.
Then we have the TWLO announcement from a couple days ago working with Stripe.
This is obviously a huge market, and its going to be fun, and hopefully profitable, to follow along over the next several years.
Jim
This market is changing so quickly.
Absolutely, and as I own Square, Paypal, and TWLO, I hope any and/or all of them succeed! Plenty of room for more than one winner as it’s a huge market. Can also keep watch and if one clearly seems to have the inside track and better prospects (talking mostly SQ and PYPL here, not TWLO), sell out of one and consolidate into the other fintech stock, but I actually think they’ll all do pretty well going forward from here.
More info on SQ’s ‘Terminal’…
https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/18/square-terminal/?yptr=yaho…
Square unveils the Square Terminal, designed to replace old keypad credit card machines
Good added detail. Useful.
Very long SQ here.
Thanks Jim!
It seems that Square charges higher fees for each transaction for using the terminal. I guess small merchants have to pay up for the opportunities to get the sales if customers don’t want to pay cash.
“Square Terminal costs $399. Businesses that are new to Square and that order now will also receive a $300 processing credit. With or without the credit, Square will process those payments on the same simple terms it offers to everyone else — 2.6 percent, plus 10 cents for each transaction.”
IIRC, Paypal charges 1.9 percent or something like that.
Zangwei
I wonder if there are consequences for smaller transaction fees. I remember when I had two processors. One is First Data and the other was Square. A material number of charges I tried to get to go through with Square were rejected, and many of these were then accepted when I then ran them through First Data.
That was a few years ago. I do not know what differences that there might be, but it is possible that lower fees comes with a less “aggressive” card charging process, or not. Does someone know?
Tinker
btw/ none of the cards I put through were fraudulent. In my position people are usually scared to give me a bad check or fraudulent card because they know it is illegal and I can do something about it.
One time in 20 years I was given a bad check and that was made up the next day.
So Square became quite frustrating for me. The iPhone scanner did not work well as it would take multiple swipes to get it to read. Sometimes I would have to resort to typing in the number. Then many good cards were rejected where First Data accepted them just a few minutes later.
Anecdotal. We are talking maybe two or three dozen before I just stopped using Square.
I wonder if there are consequences for smaller transaction fees. I remember when I had two processors. One is First Data and the other was Square. A material number of charges I tried to get to go through with Square were rejected, and many of these were then accepted when I then ran them through First Data.
Yeh - I see a lot of First Data in Asia where Square is non existent. Stripe is emerging.
A