Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey’s new startup Square announced it’s slashing credit card transaction fees today.
The small, white device plugs into a smartphone and processes credit card swipes on the spot, a convenience for which Square used to charge 2.75 percent of the transaction plus a 15-cent fee. Now, the flat fee is gone. “A simple revolution,” Mr. Dorsey said.
The change makes the novel process a little easier to explain–you plug this thing in, swipe a card and pay a fraction of the total. The fee is the same every time and removes the burden on smaller transactions that inspires so many smaller New York establishments to enforce draconian credit card minimums.
“When you want to know how much money you’ve made, you no longer have to wade through a complex maze of hidden costs and fees. Just simple multiplication and you know what will be in your bank account,” Square says. The service is reportedly adding 60,000 new merchants a month.
While Square has one office in New York, it’s mostly a West Coast company, with about 70 developers in San Francisco. But we heard Mr. Dorsey will be back in town next week.
ajeffries [at] observer.com | @adrjeffries
