Tech Tuesday – Square Your Yourself Up

Lets say you're friend owes you $20, and you need the money. You meet up with him and ask if he has the $20 he owes you. He says he has it in his account but not in cash and needs to go to an ATM. But wait! You pull out your iPhone of Android phone, and connect your Square and can swipe his Credit or Debit card!

This has been out for a while, but I decided ot get one and see how they work. The Square is just a small device you plug into the headphone jack of your smart phone. It works with a free app that is available on the iTunes apps store and Android Marketplace, allowing you to take credit card or debit payments right on your phone. All you need is a bank account in the U.S. and a Social Security number or Tax ID number.

You create a free account at squareup.com and they send you the device for free. From there you just add a bank account to your Square account, just like Paypal, and you can start to take credit or debit cards for your business or just for yourself.

And yes, like all the other credit card device companies out there, they do take a small piece of the amount for the service. But it's a flat 2.75%. No mystical complex formulas like the others use. If you have a small business or just a service you provide on a part time basis, you don't need to invest a lot of money into a credit card machine to take those payments anymore. And for the average person, this can be real handy.

With the Ham radio swap meets coming up, I plan on having mine with me and a little sign that says I can take credit or debit. It'll make people look twice I'm sure, but then I don't have to go looking for an ATM from my back 2 miles away from the event. Think this might be worth it for you?

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