You’ve probably heard of the mobile payment service called Square. This was co-created Jack Dorsey of Twitter and retailers put the Square card reader into the headset jack of their iPhone or Android device and can instantly accept money from customers. Works like other credit card swipe machines, but the downside for us Canadians is that it’s not available here. But hey, who needs a big American company when we have our own homegrown version now available.
Payfirma has been in this type of payment business for years, mainly offering virtual terminals that you see in restaurants and other retail location when they come to your table and swipe your card. They have just released the Payfirma Mobile Payment app for iPhone. The app is free to download (you must open an account first) and gives merchants the ability to accept credit cards from the iPhone. Similar to Square, Payfirma is a secure service and has an optional card swiper to make things faster. They state that “Signing your name to approve a transaction has never been simpler, or more fun, and, it’s 100% smudge free – guaranteed”… receipts can be sent directly from the app to the customer via email.
Talking a look at their website it looks like it’s only compatible with the iPhone 3G, 3GS, iPhone 4, and iPod touch. An iPad version is in the works and they also have a pic of the Nexus One on the homepage, so an Android app could be coming too.
