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Intuit Gets Competitive with Free Credit Card Swiper

by Terrence O'Brien on January 11, 2011 at 08:20 AM

Intuit Card ReaderIntuit has had Twitter founder Jack Dorsey's mobile payment startup Square in its sights for some time. Back in August, Intuit teamed up with Mophie to offer a complete hardware and software package for $179 up front, plus a small percentage of every purchase made (smaller than that taken by Square). But Square always offered its card reader for free with the software package. Now, Intuit has decided to do away with the charge for the card reader, and to offer a new GoPayment plan with a free reader, which can be attached to many smartphones. The new GoPayment plan charges rates higher than the normal 1.7-percent, but still manages to be slightly cheaper than Square's 2.75-percent, settling on a 2.7-percent fee for users of the free hardware and software package.

Ultimately, it only matters how much room for growth and competition remains in the market for mobile-payment systems. The audience for Square and GoPayment is small anyway, and it's clear that many are banking on NFC and RFID as the future of mobile payments. There are also simpler, although significantly less professional, options in place for the mobile, rogue businessman, like Bump and PayPal. Will a free GoPayment system cut into Square's business? Maybe. But what difference will it make if both systems are obsolete within a year or two?

Tags: apps, cellphones, gopayment, intuit, mobile payments, MobilePayments, square, top

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