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Square chip-and-signature cardreaders available for pre-order ahead of next year’s changes

It may not yet be practical for micro businesses to fork out for the expensive NFC payment terminals needed for Apple Pay, but Square is ensuring that they will at least be all set for the shift to chip-and-signature cards next year.

As of October 2015, any retailer without a chip-and-signature reader will bear the risk of fraudulent transactions, giving them a strong incentive to update their cardreaders. Fortunately, with Square, it’s not an expensive shift: the iPhone reader will cost just $29 – the cheapest on the market – while the Chip Card Accessory for the Square Stand iPad terminal costs $39.

It will be interesting to see whether Square is later able to develop a low-cost NFC reader to support contactless cards and Apple Pay, but in the meantime both chip-and-signature products are available for pre-order now, with delivery early next year.

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Comments

  1. Jurgis Ŝalna - 9 years ago

    > It will be interesting to see whether Square is later able to develop a low-cost NFC reader

    What stops iPhones accept NFC payments?

    • cjt3007 - 9 years ago

      This is why iPad should have NFC too, so it can accept ApplePay!

  2. Jeff McNabb (@nevember) - 9 years ago

    Genuinely curious, how would the transaction flow be if Square implemented Apple Pay? Does that mean if I buy a bowl of ice cream, I pay $10.00 with my phone. 2.75% (or 15cents) goes to Square, and then of that 2.75%, 0.15% of it goes to Apple?

    Or would it mean that the retailer pays both of them initially, so they are being charged 2.90%?

    Or would it be a deal worked out with the first example, such that Square says “you can offer your customers apple pay with new Plan X, and pay just 2.90% per transaction”, and Square is the only one that pays Apple, but they keep their same margins?

    If anyone knows how this works, that’d be great! Thanks.

    • Square has no deal with Apple so it doesn’t work. It’s moot until they come to an agreement.

      However, the agreement with VISA, MC, AMEX and BANKS, is that Apple’s slice comes out of their larger slice, not the store’s.

    • bfredit - 9 years ago

      Merchant pays 2.75% to Square
      Square pays most of that to Credit Card Issuer
      Credit Card Issuer pays that 0.15% to Apple

  3. “CHIP + PIN” – you don’t sign when you use chip authentication. At least not in any developed country.

    • Ben Lovejoy - 9 years ago

      In Europe, it’s chip-and-PIN; in the USA, it will be chip-and-signature. Seems a bizarre decision to me, but that’s the one that’s been made’

      • taoprophet420 - 9 years ago

        Government issued cards must be chip & pin in the US starting in Janaury. Hopefully it will spur more financial companies to do chip & pin instead of chip and signature.

    • Zaph - 9 years ago

      Right, so we are not a developed country. Since Chip + PIN has been inEurope for a dozen years and we are now getting Chip + Signature perhaps by 2026 we may get Chip + PIN.

      • jakexb - 9 years ago

        How does a squiggly line authenticate anything?

Author

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Ben Lovejoy

Ben Lovejoy is a British technology writer and EU Editor for 9to5Mac. He’s known for his op-eds and diary pieces, exploring his experience of Apple products over time, for a more rounded review. He also writes fiction, with two technothriller novels, a couple of SF shorts and a rom-com!


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