PayPal now offers the chip-and-PIN version of its PayPal Here mobile card reader to merchants in Australia.
Processing Content
PayPal Here launched in 2012 as a triangle-shaped device that attaches to a smartphone or tablet's headphone jack to read swiped card payments. The eBay unit launched a version that reads EMV-chip cards in the U.K. in August 2013. This version communicates with a smartphone over a Bluetooth wireless connection.
Australian merchants can use the EMV version of the device by paying per-transaction fees with no monthly fees, PayPal says in an April 2 blog post. The goal is to give small businesses "greater flexibility with a less rigid payment structure," says Andrew Rechtman, senior director of SMB, retail and strategy for PayPal Australia, in the blog post.
In addition, PayPal's device prepares small merchants for the country's mandatory use of EMV technology coming into effect next year, Rechtman says.