Square Card-Acceptance Service Debuts On IPad

This past weekend’s launch of Apple Inc.’s iPad also saw the introduction of Square Inc.’s payment card-acceptance application for the device.

Twitter Inc. founder Jack Dorsey announced Square in December as a payment card-acceptance service for users of Apple’s iPhone but has yet to make the software available (see story). Instead, it released a version for the iPad, a larger touch-screen device.

Though San Francisco-based Square did not respond to requests for comment by deadline, PaymentsSource has learned that Square has become an independent sales organization and is included on Visa Inc.’s list of registered ISOs. Visa’s list does not indicate the acquiring bank for Square, and Square does not list the information on its Web site.

Square’s Web site, however, now includes basic account information. It says merchants using the service will pay no set up or monthly fees and do not need a merchant account. Square lists its discount rates at 2.9% of the sale for card-present transactions and 3.5% for card-not-present transactions, and it does not assess a per-transaction fee.