I’m fully uneducated about this. May have the occasion to need to run a fundraising event where I would need to take credit card info/charges from donors.
I know I’ve seen vendors with those “Square” credit card readers used in conjunction with an iPhone - and I assume, some sort of app on your phone to work with it.
What can you tell me about how this works? Things like:
Readers you recommend.
Readers you DON’T recommend.
$$ for a reader or the accompanying app
Additional costs - a monthly cost? A per swipe cost?
ANYTHING ELSE!
Thanks in advance. The event I may need to use something like this is in February. So I have time to figure things out.
It’s been a couple years, but we used a Square reader on an Ipad to take orders/sell apparel at swim meets. It worked okay for that purpose. I can’t remember if there was a set-up fee. We did pay per swipe, but it was based on the sale $$. We went with Square because there was no monthly fee; we were only charged for usage.
The big negative is if there is a problem: no human contact. We could never get a person to talk to as all communication is by email. Answers were delayed or ignored. If you anticipate a lot of refunds, that gave us the most trouble, and we didn’t have that many. However, maybe that has changed. I will say it was easy to use and easy for a lay person to learn.
I have used Square for a non-profit with which I am involved. You sign up for free and download the app and they will send you one card reader for free. I think you can purchase additional card readers for less than $20. There is a charge if you want a chip reader, as opposed to the swipe kind. It deposits the money directly into your linked bank account. They do charge a credit card processing fee. I think it was less than 3% per transaction. It is super easy to use, and Square sends you emails about the net amounts that are deposited.
