Square Competitor FreshBooks Launches $30 Card Reader

Cloud accounting company FreshBooks announced its plans to venture into mobile payments with the launch of a Square Reader-like device that could plug and play for merchants.

The device, which the Toronto-based company plans on releasing by spring 2016, will be pocket-sized and will fit into the audio jack of any smartphone to accept EMV-enabled cards, according to a company statement.

“Running your own business has all kinds of challenges, but getting paid shouldn’t be one of them,” said Mike McDerment, cofounder and CEO of FreshBooks.

The company’s move into the mobile payments space comes as an obvious next step after the launch in October of “Payments by FreshBooks,” an online payments solutions for SMBs that allows them to accept credit cards. “Seventy-five percent of small businesses already use mobile devices to run their businesses, and the FreshBooks Card Reader will offer them with yet another way to streamline their workflow while on the go,” McDerment said.

FreshBooksCardReader

While it will be a long road for FreshBooks to catch up with its competitor, Square, which recently went public, the company is expected to hit the ground running with its background in cloud accounting backing its POS device. Other than providing merchants the bare essentials, such as invoices, estimates and expenses, it also provides real-time transaction updates and allows merchants to accept payments from their customers online.

FreshBooks said it is currently accepting pre-orders from merchants for its card reader that will be made available for $29. The company plans on charging 2.7 percent plus $0.30 per transaction for MasterCard and Visa payments and 3.4 percent plus $0.30 per transaction for American Express payments.

The company’s launching rate puts it in an uphill battle to gain traction against Square, which charges 2.75 percent per transaction and has a larger user base. However, the product’s launch might get a headstart with FreshBook’s international presence in 10 countries.