Can I use Square in Puerto Rico?

[RSotomayor]

Can I access Square with an address on Puerto Rico?

[George · Accepted solution]

Right now we don't support payment processing in Puerto Rico. But we would love to be able to.

The issue is that many industry-wide banks we work with don't have a corporate presence in U.S. territories, like Puerto Rico. We're working on it!

[pedrito]

still not available in puerto rico?

[Sean]

@pedrito - Not at this time, but we definitely appreciate your interest. We'll share any updates here if we have any in the future. 

[FirstSmilepr]

Any progress on this?

[Helen]

We don't have a timeline yet @FirstSmilepr, thanks for checking in! 

[rethinkinghell]

I take it then that Square Payroll is also not yet available in Puerto Rico?

[Helen]

That is correct @rethinkinghell. We'll certainly announce any updates when Square's features are available in Puerto Rico.

[ShutterGuru]

Hello... I found this thread, hope this helps.  Looks like you would have to create a seperate acct within Puerto Rico and then you can take payments.. or at least that's what I understood.. give a try.

Can I Process Payments While Travelling Abroad?

Cross-border card payments are unsupported. This means that card transactions attempted outside of the country where you activated your Square account can’t be processed with Square. However, you can accept cash transactions while traveling internationally.

Note: If you’re in the country where you activated your Square account, you can process international cards.

You can create multiple Square accounts, each with its own country selection, but a different email address and different identity verification information is required for each account.

[katieand]

Hi @ShutterGuru - Just wanted to jump in here to clarify - Square cannot yet process credit card transactions in Puerto Rico. We'll be sure to update this thread should that change!

[Cmepay]

So let me get this straight...it's not supported in PR because PR is a commonwealth of the US?   The banks in PR must adhere to US Banking laws and all payments go through the Fed.  All banks in PR are FDIC insured and many of the banks also exist inside of the upper 48.  In addition, all residents of PR are US citizens.   So therefore, all owners, boards, trustees, and stock holders of PR banks are US citizens. 

Why is it again that Square isn't available in PR?

[EJ_]

@Cmepay This is mainly due to the lack of corporate presence in Puerto Rico (and other U.S. Territories) by the industry-wide banks that you're referring to. Since we depend on partnerships with these banks to extend underwriting to our customers, we’re unable to offer payment processing in US territories.

[JohannPR]

Then why do you sell all your Square products in Puerto Rico? What exactly is the point of that?

[JohannPR]

Because I have a business in Puerto Rico and I bought your square stand and terminal today to just find out I cannot use them. 

[VanKalkerFarms]

the Square POS app can be used anywhere to use as a POS system for tracking cash sales and for tracking sales thru a local credit card processor.  Tens of thousands of people, maybe even hundreds of thousands, use the Square POS for free without using Square as their Credit Card processor.

I am not in Puerto Rico so I don't know what or if anything is said about purchasing equipment outside of the areas that Square has Credit Card processing contracts.

[tvx1]

Any update?

Thanks

[puka]

Hey @tvx1 - Unfortunately, no updates right now. We'll share news on this thread as soon as we receive any.

[TriAce]

Hello! I just signed up to comment on your post since Square is not available for my island in the Caribbean (Antigua). 

I noticed you said, "we depend on partnerships with these banks to extend underwriting to our customers" showing that you guys basically depend on the bank's presence to be able to provide processing of cards in a said country, right? 

For us in Antigua, we have Royal Bank of Canada locally accessible, which I'm pretty sure you're partnered with. But we're not in the list of support countries for card processing. I asked why and got this:

RBC's response to why we can't access POS card processing.

This is probably the reason why we can't get any POS systems available yet. (Square, Shopify, Sumup, etc)

So I'm guessing we shouldn't be tearing off on Square about country availability, but pushing potential and/or partnered banks to provide us with more information and proactive solutions to make these cool, beautiful POS systems available locally. Am I right or not? I'm just trying to make sense of my confusion on this.

I got some questions if it's okay to ask here:

1. If I invest in Square or not (alottt of stocks), it still won't be available in my country/island, right?
2. Do banks seek to apply for partnership with Square or the other way around?

Sorry for the long post but I really want Square worldwide but at least hitting my seashore by 2020-21, by any means necessary.

Thanks for your time! 😄
@EJ_  @anySquareOps! 

[Tom]

Hey @TriAce, welcome to the Seller Community and thanks for taking the time to share your business needs—we'd love to offer more payment options in Antigua. I went to check for updates but there isn't a specific timeline that I can share out with regard to our international expansion. Please keep in touch, as we'll definitely announce any developments that come through.

[TriAce]

Thanks bro! Meanwhile, I'll do what I can on my end. Going to see if I can connect with some RBC/Scotiabank executives or someone that can give me some more information on this or a price tag. Anything but "coming soon". 

If anyone from Square has additional comments on my original post regarding Square availability, feel free to push suggestions or intel on what's going on.

[boma23]

Also following for British Virgin Islands.

Local economy is USD, and banks here are Banco Popular, Scotiabank, and First Bank.

Will square work through any of these?