Mobile card reader space hots up

Following the launches of mobile card reader devices such as Square, iZettle and mPowa, US firm Inuit has launched one of its own. Intuit Payenables businesses to take secure payments face-to-face and over the phone. The Chip & PIN card reader is currently only available for Apple’s iOS devices, and is free for a limited, unspecified, time.

The firm will take a 2.75 per cent fee for all transactions. Intuit said that the device will connect to the firm’s own accounting software, QuickBooks Online, from April 2013, to allow subscribers to accept card payments and update their accounting records in one go.

“Intuit Pay solves an important problem for the millions of small businesses and trades people in the UK who don’t currently accept card payments and so miss out on sales or prompt payment as a result,” said Terry Hicks, vice president of products for Intuit’s global business division.

“Current solutions are either too expensive, demand long-term contracts or simply don’t work where businesses need them,” he added.