# Amazon Takes on Square and Paypal with new credit card reader



## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

This is interesting:

Accept all major cards for 1.75% per swipe until January 1, 2016 (limited time offer). No hidden fees.
$10 processing credit will offset the first $10 of processing fees we charge.
Works with Fire tablets, iPhone, iPad, and select Android phones.
Powerful, at-a-glance insights into how your business is doing.
Fast deposits to your bank account.



According to the product page, if you sign up before October 31, the processing fee rate until December 2015 will be 1.75 percent. It's $10 to buy the device but there's a $10 credit when you sign up....Still looking into this.

I know a lot of our members use Square; thought this might be of interest. I use Square, but I'm going to look into this as it does work with the Kindle Fire.

Betsy


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## geoffthomas (Feb 27, 2009)

Building a complete empire, little piece by little piece.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

I know we have members who sell stuff...I thought BT might be interested.  I've ordered one, will let y'all know when I get it.

Betsy


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## BTackitt (Dec 15, 2008)

Well, reviews are .... poor to start, and, it's not compatible with my phone currently.
So I will wait.
I am interested however.. I have used my Square a couple of times already. 

I'm going on a quilting retreat this weekend (first half of my vacation) then on to southern California for a week, before returning home for next semester's classes. At the retreat I plan on taking pics of all of my stock (pincushions and hatpins) getting them all up on Etsy, and making more of course. School this summer just killed my creative time.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

BTackitt said:


> Well, reviews are .... poor to start, and, it's not compatible with my phone currently.
> So I will wait.
> I am interested however.. I have used my Square a couple of times already.


I ordered one because the Square doesn't work with my Fire, and I want to use the discounted rate for my next two craft shows. I have an Android smartphone, but I was thinking of giving it up. I can use this with my Fire HDX 4G.

EDIT: Looked at the reviews and most of the negatives don't have to do with the device itself but with the fact that you apparently have to set up a separate account to use the device (fine with me) and the cost--which is offset by the $10 credit in processing fees. People who actually discuss the device say it works better than the Square. The app sounds like it may need work, though. The Square app is pretty nice. I'll let you know....



> I'm going on a quilting retreat this weekend (first half of my vacation) then on to southern California for a week, before returning home for next semester's classes. At the retreat I plan on taking pics of all of my stock (pincushions and hatpins) getting them all up on Etsy, and making more of course. School this summer just killed my creative time.


BT, I've been meaning to ask you, what do you fill your pincushions with? I want to make a few for my show in October.

Betsy


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## WDR (Jan 8, 2014)

After the introductory period (ends at the end of 2014), each transaction will cost you 2.5% of the transaction cost. PayPal and Square cost more than 2.7% and also tack on 15¢ for each transaction. So, Amazon's offering is a better deal.

If you wanted to set up a clearing account with a bank so you could directly accept credit cards, the fees and monthly charges are significantly higher: on the order of $30–$40 per month.

The downside is, Amazon wants you to set up a whole new account with them—which is a pain in the ass. I already have an account as a bookseller, why can't they use that? (Well, there may be accounting/tax/security reasons for not using the same account.)

I'm using Square and that works well enough.

I also have the PayPal reader, but PayPal tends to be Jekyll and Hyde when it comes to businesses. Open an account as a private individual and they are Jekyll. Try to open a business account with them, and they go completely Hyde on you, to the point I could never quite get the business account opened. They had me jumping through so many hoops and hurdles, I gave up trying.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

WDR said:


> After the introductory period (ends at the end of 2014), each transaction will cost you 2.5% of the transaction cost. PayPal and Square cost more than 2.7% and also tack on 15¢ for each transaction. So, Amazon's offering is a better deal.
> 
> If you wanted to set up a clearing account with a bank so you could directly accept credit cards, the fees and monthly charges are significantly higher: on the order of $30--$40 per month.
> 
> ...


I don't much care about the extra account--it's worth it to me--it'll save a bunch if I just sell one quilt using it. Wasn't aware that PayPal had a reader....

Mine is on its way. I'll let everyone know what I think.

Betsy


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## Saul Tanpepper (Feb 16, 2012)

WDR said:


> After the introductory period (ends at the end of 2014), each transaction will cost you 2.5% of the transaction cost. PayPal and Square cost more than 2.7% and also tack on 15¢ for each transaction. So, Amazon's offering is a better deal.


For swiped transactions, Square's charge is a flat 2.75%. The 15-cent charge comes when you key in the card number (and the rate increases to 3.5%). Either way, looks like Amazon is competitive. Amazon's manually keyed transactions will be 2.75%.


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## Saul Tanpepper (Feb 16, 2012)

I don't see where the 'Zon lets you set up an estore, like Square does (for online transactions). I sell a fair amount of print books via my website, so I'd have to keep Square.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

WDR said:


> The downside is, Amazon wants you to set up a whole new account with them--which is a pain in the *ss. I already have an account as a bookseller, why can't they use that? (Well, there may be accounting/tax/security reasons for not using the same account.)


This on the Amazon Local Register help page:



> We are experiencing a problem that has prevented some customers from using their Amazon.com email address to sign up for Amazon Local Register. We are working to resolve this issue. If you are experiencing this issue, you can still sign up for an Amazon Local Register account by providing a different email address that is not associated with your Amazon.com account. If you prefer to use your existing Amazon.com email address, please try again in the coming week. We apologize for the inconvenience.


So it looks like they'll be fixing it.

Betsy


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## BTackitt (Dec 15, 2008)

Answered Betsy's OT question via PM. 

as for the fixing the issue with using an already set up account, fabulous. I will wait to see how that pans out. also, it's still not compatible with my phone, so... I keep waiting til they expand their compatibilities.


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