Mobile payment start-up Square has announced it will be dropping per-transaction fees charged to its customers. Merchants using the service to accept credit cards using their smartphones will only be charged a discount rate of 2.75 percent on any transaction where the card is swiped. Card-not-present transactions will still be charged a per-transaction fee of 15 cents as well as a higher discount rate of 3.5 percent.
The news comes during a particularly active time for companies in this space that allow merchants to use their smartphones as mobile point-of-sale terminals using a combination of hardware and installed applications. Square recently announced it had secured $27.5 million in venture funding. Competitors Intuit, Sage Payment Solutions and Verifone have all made significant announcements in recent weeks as well.
