Will fees for manual entry be waived during COVID-19?

[jill6487]

Here's a friendly suggestion from a long time Square user with multiple business locations: to help small businesses cope with the craziness of COVID-19 - waive the extra charges for manually entered credit cards, since we are (in many states) being forced to take payment over the phone versus swiping a card, therefore being forced to have higher fees!!!

Thank you for listening!

[Jofjds]

With the covid crisis most customers prefer giving their credit card over the phone. Can you waive the additional fees for keyed in credit cards during this pandemic????

[deervalleydanes]

We are encouraging all of our customers to pay with credit cards rather than personal or business checks or cash.  It is my opinion that paying with credit cards involves the least amount of contact for everyone's safety.  My question to Square is - would it be possible to charge less than a 3.5% transaction rate during this time so we can continue to encourage customers to use their credit cards?  We are a pet supply company and a small business so we are looking for incentive to keep our customers purchasing from us rather than go to a larger competitor.  People are losing their jobs and are starting to feed their pets cheaper dog food because they cannot afford to keep feeding their dogs our healthier alternatives.  If Square does not wish to help and support small business by offering a lower transaction rate - perhaps they would consider donating 1% or 2% per transaction fee to a non-profit or a food bank to help people and pets in need?

[PaulineC]

I am asking again for Square to consider reducing the processing fees for transactions for individual transactions to, at a minimum, match the in-person (card present) processing rate, or to reduce it further.  I have been a long-standing customer of Square processing.  

I am among many psychotherapists in the Northern New Jersey area who have been communicating about the rate of transaction processing and the negative impact on our economic well-being.  We are looking at other payment options. Being able to keep our costs low allows us to help those that need care.

People are losing their jobs, or having their hours greatly reduced.  Families are becoming traumatized by the crisis.  As professionals, many of us are giving back providing pro-bono and deeply reduced fees for families of those that have been ill, died, and the healthcare workers on the front-lines.  Every company needs to consider how to support the mission of helping those in need.

Mental Health has been deemed a necessary service.  NJ now has the highest number of Covid cases, second to NYC, which is just across our border here - my office is in Bergen County.  The crisis here will increasingly become more intense.  NJ is in a mandatory lockdown, so we do not have the option of processing a card in person at the lower rate.  We are doing our part by working remotely.

[JudyG]

With Covid 19 my business will move to contactless payments for all services. Any chance you might reduce your rate for card on file payments?

[ashc]

Hi @JudyG,

I'm moving your post to an existing thread where another seller had the same question.

Check out @Valentina 's best answer for more details. 

[CCCC]

Any talk of cutting fees for those of us who are using the Square more due to the social distrancing and the non use of checks and cash?

Just checking.  As a non profit it would certainly help.

Caney Creek Cowboy Church

[Feedguys]

As a small essential business, we would prefer to manually enter the credit card so we don't have to handle everyones card but Square during this pandemic is still charging the higher fee. So despite curbside delivery we are handling everyones card with a glove on but would be better if not penalized at this time.

[An3]

I agree, many wish to pay over the phone and that cost us extra! I thought about invoicing but that is a lot of work with just 2 of us. That’s one reason I haven’t moved to online ordering, it’s too hard to keep up with just 2 people. 

[isabelle]

Hey @Feedguys & @An3-

Thanks for posting in the Seller Community.

We understand that this is a difficult time, and many businesses have been impacted by recent changes made by COVID-19. When it comes to the higher transaction fee for manually-entered, keyed-in transactions, it's because they are considered higher risk than swiped or chp insert transactions. Therefore, credit card providers charge Square more in order to protect against fraud.

We're still evaluating ways to support our sellers during this difficult time. If any changes are made to our fees, we'll be sure to post in this thread. 

[cduchin]

I believe that most of the community who has had to go to manual entry feel like they are now being penalized.

[Joe]

Thanks for voicing your thoughts here, @cduchin. This is a very difficult time for everyone, and tough decisions seem to be a daily occurrence for everyone. We want to make sure you are supported fully during this season, and we want to make sure our resources are clear and helpful.

We’re continually evaluating all options to help our sellers as this situation evolves, however we haven’t made changes to transaction fees at this time. Should any news change in this regard, we will be sure to vocalize them heavily here on this thread.

[drjay]

Right, interchange rates charge 0.05% and increase to 1.8% or so for on file. You mark it up to 2.6%-3.5% or so for profit reasons and convenience as you provide a good service. There has to be some margin for wiggle, though, particularly during this tough time. If not, then there's not.

[ScottinMA]

Due to social distancing we cannot run charge cards through the square device resulting in the need to manually input the charge which results in a higher fee for the service.  I feel that it is wrong that square profits from this situation and should eliminate these extra fees during the pandemic.

Scott A. Smith, Psy.D.

Clinical Psychology Associates

745 Falmouth Rd.

Hyannis, MA 02601

[Kassi_]

Hey there, @ScottinMA

Thank you for reaching out about this. I moved your post to a thread where other sellers are discussing the same thing. 

We’re continually evaluating all options to help our sellers as this situation evolves, however we haven’t made changes to transaction fees at this time.

Keep an eye out for this thread for updates. Also, please check out our Resources page for what we're currently doing if you haven't already. 

[cduchin]

Scott, I completely agree!

[Joe]

Hi there, @cduchin - thanks for adding your voice here.

Be sure to reference Valentina's Best Answer to learn more about what we are doing to assist Sellers during this time. Feel free to let me know if you have any questions!

[Dutch]

Hi Joe, 

As a small business owner I have been following this thread for a while now and keep seeing the same deferred answers from what seems a square playbook. So far we are all in this together and losing money as small business owners; however it is clear ,a month into this, that square is not budging on carrying a share of the loss and still continues to profit regardless. 
For example square could suggest a 3% charge instead of 3.5% plus 15 cents to carry some of the burden that we are all facing. Almost every response I see is that square is still working on it and gives us sites with resources which are not that helpful for the daily operations for us as small business owners. It’s not very hard to meet us half way, we all want to make a living but for over a month square is reluctant to assist. We are doing everything in our power to keep customer contact to a minimum, hence the over the phone manual entering of credit card info.

As a loyal square user for 6 years, I feel disappointed in the company and will research other options for transactions after we conquer this Covid-19.

Please do not respond with responses of we are trying to come up with solutions, you had a month and nothing has been accomplished. 
Thank you,

Frustrated square user.

[marlaf]

Hi

i switched to Ivy Pay, geared for therapists though.  They charge what Square charges for swiping, plus HIPAA compliant

[SexTherapyNM]

Thanks for the tip @marlaf ! I'll check out Ivy Pay.

[sayra]

Many of our sellers are asking similar questions. Thanks for the suggestions, we keep all of you in mind while we continue to explore options. Please feel free to pin this link for any upcoming updates on our current resources. 

[sheyegirlcoffee]

I couldn't agree with you more. I think that there might be a lawsuit plausible later on with all of us small business owners. If you think about it this is something we needed to do in order to run safely and in compliance. I saw something posted a bit ago that said the reason they can't change the charge of the over the phone charge and possibly invoicing price is because evidently it is not as secure as swiping and/or the chip route so the bank charges them more? Well, I am not sure the deal there, but regardless they are still making their normal percentage rate or a little less and well, that is what is happening to us SO I say if we are all in this together we should ALL, including Square, need to take a cut. GOODNESS GRACIOUS. This. is. so. wrong.