Tuesday, March 15, 2011

It's a Square World

Good morning wet world! It is truly spring in Atlanta. All the cherries, plums, bradford pears, forsythia, and early deciduous magnolias burst into glorious bloom a couple of weeks ago, and now the redbuds are starting to open... and it's raining. I don't mind the rain though, today is a day for getting to studio projects that have languished for too long--repairs, screen-print fuses, and the first round of orders from the BMAC. I'll probably even finish up the bills and supply orders I need to get paid and in (in that order).

A hot topic lately in the small artist world is credit card processing with a Square or similar device. Dave, my uber-geeky-technological-and financial-industry-cred-out-the-wazoo spouse got me one (and even set up the account for me--not that I plan to use it) and got himself one too, who knows why! I don't plant to use it as my card processing needs are more geared to card-not-present scenarios (over the phone, over the web sales), and I also have a high enough credit card sales volume that a real business account with lower rates makes more sense to me.

However I have been following with interest one of the recent debates as to the safety of the square that has been politely raging on Wendy Rosen's Facebook page for the past couple of days. I know (and highly respect) Cynthia personally, and Guy at TeaMac has been my credit card processor for many years. It's worth a look. (And for the record, I, too, would like more hard reputable test data provided and less the-sky-is-falling hyperbole.)

Happy Tuesday!

5 comments:

Dee said...

my gawd a post! an honest to gawd post! be still my heart!

heheehehehehehe

ok, now to the serious part - the hullaballo started by verifone just reeks to high heaven of fear. gotta go find the thread on wendy's fb page and read that. there was another article written by a 3rd part that pointed out verifone even sells some unencrypted swipe devices.

Bill said...

David buying you a tech device you won't use? How odd!

Brenda Griffith said...

He didn't buy it--it was FREE! :-)

Tam said...

The thread is closed now but thanks for menitioning it. The other thing is that Square holds funds for up to 30 days & you're only allowed to charge $1000 in a week before that applies.
As a business owener I agree with you that a merchant account is more viable with lower rates & no limits.
Thanks for the info on the Square! T

marilyn said...

The square has worked out great for me (keeps fingers crossed) at open studios, and the $ were in my bank acct about 24 hours later. the merchant acct I had has continued to charge me despite repeated faxes and calls.

So, for me at least right now, the square has been great. At open studios last year, people were basically lining up to see their credit card zipping through the system!