Intuit Inc. is taking its GoPayment mobile card reader to Canada and is redesigning the product to make it more appealing to use.
The Mountain View, Calif.-based company later this quarter will begin offering GoPayment services to Canadian small businesses and to any seller who wants to accept credit card payments on an Apple Inc. iPhone, iPad or iPod touch device, the company announced Tuesday.
In Canada, GoPayment users will pay an undisclosed fee per transaction. In the U.S., swiped GoPayment transactions incur a charge of 2.7% of the sale with no monthly fee. There is also an option to pay a monthly fee of $12.95, which reduces the swiped-transaction rate to 1.7% of the sale.
Intuit is still exploring whether to include a monthly-payment option with a lower rate in Canada, says Trevor Dryer, Intuit's head of product management for mobile payments and point of sale. Final rates will be released later this quarter, he says.
Intuit also soon will begin shipping a free, newly designed GoPayment Card reader in both countries. Intuit based the new design on feedback from users of GoPayment and competing devices, Dryer says. The new device, which also will be free, has a "nicer look and feel" compared with the original, he says.
It features a silicone sleeve that conforms to the phone or tablet to keep the reader from moving or spinning when swiping a card. In addition, Intuit says it improved the swipe channel to read cards accurately the first time by putting it on an angle, beveling it and making it longer.
In November, Intuit launched a prepaid card whose account merchants may use to deposit their GoPayment sales. Dryer says Intuit will consider offering a similar card in Canada, but it will not be part of the initial launch there.
