I’m very excited to announce the latest update to the Square Point of Sale app. Card on File will give you the ability to safely store and charge your customers cards in your Point of Sale app all while staying compliant with PCI standards and creating a seamless experience for your customer.
This has been one of our most requested features and I’m here to tell you about it - let’s get started! A few things to note before we jump in:
- You’ll pay a fee of 3.5% + 15 cents each time you complete a payment with a card on file using the Square app.
- Card on File is only available for the Square app on iOS and Android devices.
- Apple pay, Android pay, and Samsung pay cannot be stored, but this is a feature we’re looking into.
Let’s set it up! I’ll walk you through how to enable Card on File for your Account, the different ways you can save a card, how to charge a card once it’s saved, and, finally, how to unlink a card that is no longer in use.
Enable Card on File
First things first, we will need to enable Card on File for your account. To turn on Card on File:
- Open the Square app and tap the following icon:
- Tap Settings > Customer Management.
- Toggle on Charge and Save Cards to Customer Profiles to save your customers’ payment card information to your in-app Customer Directory.
- To save a card after a sale, toggle on Show Save Card Button After Checkout.
Save your Customer’s Card
Once you have enabled your settings, you’ll be able to start saving your customer’s cards. There are three ways that you can save a customer’s card: before a sale, after a sale, or through the Customer Directory in your Point of Sale App.
Before a sale
Note: It’s a little easier using your device in landscape view.
- Tap the drop-down arrow in the upper-right corner > Add Customer.
- Select an existing customer from the list or tap Create New Customer.
- Tap Edit Personal Information > scroll to the bottom and tap Add Card.
- Swipe the card or manually key in the payment card (or Square Gift Card) information. You’re required to enter the customer’s name and email address.
- Have your customer enter their email address for receipts.
- Have your customer authorize the card on file for future purchases by entering their billing ZIP code. Your customer will receive an email confirming that you have saved a card on file for them.
- You’ll see Card Saved once it’s linked to the customer’s profile. If your business has multiple locations, you can use a saved payment card to process a transaction at any of them.
After a sale
To start, ring up your customer as you normally would. Once you’ve completed the payment, you can store the payment card information used in the sale using the steps below.
- Tap the add card icon in the top-left corner of the All Done Screen.
- Select an existing customer or tap Create New Customer.
- Use steps 3-7 from the section above, “Before a sale” to add and save the payment card information.
From your in-app Customer Directory
- Open the Square app and tap the following icon:
- Tap Customer > select an existing customer from the list or tap Create New Customer.
- Use steps 3-7 from the section above, “Before a sale” to add and save the payment card information.
Charge a card
Once you have your customer’s card linked, you can process a transaction or Invoice without ever having the physical card present.
From the Square app
Note: We recommend using your device in landscape view for each set of steps below.
- Add items to your cart or a enter a custom amount.
- Tap Charge > Customer Cards on File.
- Select a customer with a card on file > tap Charge to select a payment card for the transaction.
- Complete the payment flow.
With Open Tickets
- Add items to your cart or a enter a custom amount.
- Tap the drop-down arrow in the upper-right corner > Add Customer.
- Select a customer with a card on file.
- Tap Charge.
- Card on File displays as a new tender type at the bottom of the screen. Tap Charge next to the card on file that you would like to use for the payment.
- Complete the payment.
Once you complete the transaction, Square Point of Sale will automatically send a receipt to the email address that is registered on your customer’s profile within your app.
Unlink a Card
If your customer ever needs to update their card or would like to delete their card completely, you can either manually remove the card or have them remove the card themselves.
Manually Remove
- Open the Square app and tap the following icon:
- Tap Customers > Select the customer you need to edit.
- Tap Edit Personal Information > Remove Card.
Your customers can also remove their own cards by following the link provided to them on all card on file notifications and receipts, these emails will go out to your customers when their card is stored, when their email address is changed, and when a payment is made using a card on file.
The link on these notifications will take them to their Card on File Dashboard, where they can view and remove the cards on file associated with your business.
Thanks for reading! You can keep up with all of our latest releases by subscribing for email updates. Please feel free to start a new thread if you have any feedback for us.
See you next time!
The Square Point of Sale Team
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