Android Phone and Squareup.com

Android Phone....


For awhile now I have been wanting to get an Android Phone for a couple reasons.

1. I can shop online for computer parts keep an eye on ebay auctions on the go and keep on top of my business. This would basically become my mobile office.
2. Get a Square Credit card reader so I can accept credit cards from customers anywhere I am at.



With Square, they provide a card swiper that plugs into an Iphone, or an Android which allows you to accept credit cards anywhere. I checked out Square and they state no hidden fees and only a 2.75% charge per swipe transaction unless you manually punch in the card its then 3.5% +15c per transaction.  I have read articles about how this is so great and the perfect tool for small business...


Then there are reasons why I have not gone out and got one yet.

1. The cell phone rate is expensive, my current cell phone is $39.99 a month and with business not always there I even find it hard to pay that some months, then its $80 dollars a month for an Android phone and that has a limit of how much data you can use and its $10 for 1GB of data after your limit. I am not sure if I would go over that limit but I am a heavy internet user as it is and I do believe that I would go over that limit quite often.
2.  I was talking to a friend of mine who runs her own business and uses the Square service and she loves it but then she mentioned to me a hidden cost I had never heard of before.  When you as a customer buys or pays for any product or service with a credit card the merchant gets charged this 2.75% transaction cost and then later on in the month they get a bill from your credit card company with an additional cost for that transaction.

Yes you read that right if I were to charge you for 1 hour of my service and you decide to use your credit card with me (just for your convenience) it would look something like this

1 hour computer repair $35.00
2.75% transaction fee   $00.96
1.7% Mastercard fee    $00.59  estimated cost.
                                  ----------
                                   $33.45 after estimated cost

Sure this doesn't sound like a lot but this is a hidden fee everyone gets charged and now gives me insite on why there are charges associated when using a credit card at a store.  The percentage goes up as the price of the transaction goes down.  From what I have found from this site http://truecostofcredit.com/ a pack of gum costing 1.50 could cost up to 45 cents in charges depending on which type of card it is.

Sure I still think this is worth having but I had no idea what the true cost was behind this.  I thought it was simple and cheap and would be ideal for me to use but looking at other credit card systems this is the least expensive way to start out.

Check out any of this data
https://squareup.com
http://truecostofcredit.com/
http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/plans/?page=single



P.S. if Verizon were to get inline with some of the other competitors and give an unlimited data plan for say $60 a month I would jump on that in a heartbeat. in fact I have been looking at moving to another cell phone company after 13 years just for that reason.
here is a few I could find in about 5 min.
http://www.straighttalk.com/ServicePlans   $45 a month unlimited
http://shop.sprint.com/mysprint/shop/plan/plan_wall.jsp?INTNAV=ATG:HE:Plans   $69 a month unlimited
http://www.t-mobile.com/shop/plans/individual-plans.aspx   $79 a month unlimited
http://www.iwireless.com/plans_detail.asp?plan=173  $69 a month unlimited talk + 2GB web


As I have stated before I am a tech not a writer so please forgive me if this is confusing.

Chris Long
http://www.thelocalgeeks.com
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