Mobile credit card company Square is making it easier for buyers and sellers to make everyday transactions.
The company's miniscule card readers are now available for purchase at more than 20,000 retail locations nationwide with the addition of Walgreens, Staples, and FedEx Office stores.
"Accepting credit cards should be as easy as buying supplies as your local store," Jeffrey Kolovson, head of Square's retail distribution, said in a statement.
The Square Card Reader, standing about an inch tall, plugs into the headphone jack of an iPhone, iPad, or Android device and enables anyone to take credit card payments through their phone. Square said the reader has been a hit with local merchants at events like flea markets or farmers' markets, enabling them to accept credit and debit cards from customers.
More than a million people and businesses have signed up to use Square, which processes more than $5 billion in payments each year, Square said in a statement. The company offers a full point-of-sale system for anyone to accept payments, track inventories, and share menus and location information with customers.
The card reader is currently available in more than 7,000 Walgreens, 1,500 Staples, and 1,500 FedEx stores, Square said. The dongle can be ordered for free on Square's website, or purchased for $9.95 at various retailers, including Apple, Best Buy, OfficeMax, Radio Shack, Target, UPS, and Wal-Mart.
"We are working with leading retailers … to give business owners convenient access to the Square Card Reader, the easiest way to accept credit card payments and grow their business," Kolovson said.
Square's website offers a simple search for the closest opportunity to pick up a card reader — just enter your ZIP code, and a map pinpoints local retailers that sell the dongle. A $10 rebate is available when new users sign up for the Square service.
The online company charges 2.75 percent per swipe of a Visa, MasterCard, Discover, or AmEx credit card, while manually entered cards cost 3.5 percent plus 15 cents per transaction.
The card reader is compatible with Apple devices running iOS 4.1 and up, including the iPhone 4 and 4S, iPad and iPhone 3G, as well as Android 2.1 devices and higher, such as the Google Nexus S, HTC EVO 3D, Motorola Phonton 4G and Samsung Galaxy. Square does not yet support Windows Phone.
The Square Register iPad app was introduced in March to replace traditional brick-and-mortar stores' cash registers with the free credit-card-and-cash-payment application. Mobile users can also sign up to pay with Square without even taking their device out of their pockets.
For more, see PCMag's full review of Square, as well as PCMag's interview with Square CTO Bob Lee.
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