More recently I've been noticing that a lot of small businesses are using Square Card Readers for the iPad. Does anyone here have experience using one as their point of sale system? I was interested in setting one up, but was curious as to what others here thought about it.

Thanks in advance!

I would like to know too!

I have one, I like being able to charge my customers on the spot, but it does not track inventory. You can put in the products that you sell so you won't have to remember everything and hat it cost.

Works very good the times that I had use it. However they have a competitor now as well that you may want to look into it... Paypal Here is the service from Paypal, I had not used the paypal yet but I ordered one and I have it here to try later. Maybe is now a good time to see wish one has better fees as well

Thanks guys, any body else have anything to share?

Thanks, iFrog for another suggestion. I've heard of other readers out there besides Square as well, so it's good to know.

John S., great to know about tracking inventory. Thanks!

Anyone else have any experience or other suggestions?

I'm big square evangelist (i'm not a square employee - just a happy user of the system). I use it on my iPhone for street festival sales and use it on iPad Register in my small restaurant. I've also tried the Paypal and Intuit solutions but found Square to be the best for a few reasons. Square Register (free) app gives you an awesome POS system - just add cash drawer and receipt printer and good to go. I have photos of my setups on request.

Originally Posted by muckychris

I'm big square evangelist (i'm not a square employee - just a happy user of the system). I use it on my iPhone for street festival sales and use it on iPad Register in my small restaurant. I've also tried the Paypal and Intuit solutions but found Square to be the best for a few reasons. Square Register (free) app gives you an awesome POS system - just add cash drawer and receipt printer and good to go. I have photos of my setups on request.

I would like to see your setup. I'm trying to figure out a setup now.

anyone need square credit i have $10 for $2 FEE

I've been using Square since the first of this year (2012). I have a small photo shop, and had been using the standard swiper from another
company. Here's the difference from my point of view. Square rocks! They charge 2.75% of each transaction, and 3.5% if you have to punch the number in. That's competitive, but the real point is that this is all they take from you. My other company was charging about 3.5%, but at the end
of each month there were a lot of 'fees' attached to the bill. So they were taking MUCH more out of my pocket, and I couldn't do anything about
it except buy my way out of their contract. Snakes. I did that, and that move has more than paid for itself in 'fees' I didn't pay since January. If
I was that other company, I'd be sweating in my silk shirt.

The other thing I like about Square is that they pay the next day. At the end of each day I get an e'mail total of my day's credit card business, and a balance after they take their percentage. That money gets deposited in my bank account electronically the next day. My old company would take three to five days. If it's nationwide, what do you think they're doing with everyone's funds in the meantime? Wall Street Gambling for sure. And charging me for the privilege of going wheelin' dealin' with my money. No thanks.

A third thing I like about Square is their accounting. After I log in there, my whole history can be displayed in Spreadsheet form, and I have been able to download and save paper backups. I pay taxes quarterly, and this is a very handy feature, saving me headaches.

What I don't like about Square is the reason I signed up on this forum. I have been trusting and upgraded all my apps whenever it's suggested. Now I find that my Square app has been "upgraded' to Square Register, and it doesn't function the way I was used to. I spent a frustrating hour this morning trying to re-learn the procedures, and did pretty well except for one simple but exasperating thing. I can't find where they've hidden the decimal point. I know it sounds really dumb, and I'm confident that it's there somewhere, but I'm in the position of having to figure it out while customers are staring at me. And I haven't figured out how to enter a charge of $68.50. When I try, it reads $6850. Horrifying, if you're the customer.

I have a message sent to Square's 'Help center" and they acknowledged it quickly, but haven't responded in detail yet. Hence this parallel line of inquiry. Does anybody know how to make my iPad's Square App enter charges expressed in dollars AND cents?

I'm still an enthusiastic Square user, this is only a temporary frustrating glitch, and it's quite likely that the answer is right under my nose. I'm not blaming them, just frustrated at the surprise change from what I thought was a simple upgrade.