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We’ve already talked about Groupon’s Square-like mobile payments service in the past. After a successful pilot in the San Francisco Bay Area, it’s now officially official along with a guarantee to be the lowest cost option for the company’s merchants to accept credit cards.
The service comes built into the latest version of the Groupon Merchants app for the iPhone and iPod Touch, allowing local businesses to accept all credit card payments at a lower rate than other providers. Swiping MasterCard, Visa and Discover cards costs 1.8% plus $0.15 per transaction, while doing the same with American Express costs 3% plus $0.15 per transaction. Moreover, there are no hidden costs or monthly fees.
But that’s not all – merchants will also have their credit card deposits in their bank accounts overnight, which is much faster than typical wait of two to three business days offered by most credit card processors.
Aside from Groupon merchants, those not offering deals through the popular service can also accept credit cards this way – the cost is 2.2% (3% for American Express) + $0.15 per transaction.
Groupon offers two types of credit card readers – a sturdy, case-based credit card reader suitable for high transaction volume merchants and an audio jack accessory a la Square.
The question remains whether Groupon has what it takes to tackle incumbent players. The way I see it, we’re talking about a huge market and at the moment there’s room for everyone. What do you say?
About The Author
Dusan Belic
Dusan has been using smartphones since their introduction and is now following the latest trends in the industry. The "convergence" is what he's most excited about, and writing about it is the next logical thing to do. He thinks that using a smartphone is what everyone who cares about their time should do. In addition to his interests in mobile phones, Dusan also loves to experiment with the latest web and mobile 2.0 services. The idea of accessing and managing your information from any device no matter where you are simply amazes him. Whether it's an online to-do list, note taking service or a video sharing social network, he's there to try it out. He admits though, he's still searching for the ultimate web-based organizational tool, which "sings" perfectly with the mobile PIM application. Dusan used to run SymbianWatch.com which later became part of IntoMobile. He lives in Serbia, South-East Europe, from where he edits the site on a daily basis.
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http://www.cardauthorizer.com/ Accept credit cards
