Understanding the Fees Square Charges to Take Credit Cards at Your Troop’s Cookie Booth
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Square Rates Have Changed
Many troop leaders and cookie moms use Square to process credit card payments at their troop’s Girl Scout Cookie Booth. Hopefully you’re receiving FREE credit card processing using their referral incentives. If you’re not receiving FREE processing from Square, here’s a summary of the costs you will incur while using Square to take credit cards at your cookie booth.
As of September 2019, Square has changed from it’s flat rate (2.75%) to a more complex fee structure. While still competitive, the new fee structure will cause a fee increase if you process many small payments.
Square Fees Depend on the Transaction Type at Cookie Booth
There are mainly two types of credit card transactions you will encounter at a Girl Scout Cookie booth; card present transactions (swiping, dipping, or tapping a credit card) or manual transactions. The fees charged will vary depending on the transaction type.
- Card Present Fees – 2.6% of the total transaction plus 10¢
- Manually Entered Fees – 3.5% of the total transaction plus .15¢
Card Present Payments
Card present payments includes when credit card information is entered into the Square app by swiping, tapping, or dipping a chip card. This will be the cheapest way to process the transaction.
Card Present Fees – 2.6% of the total transaction plus 10¢
> How to get FREE Credit Card Processing for Your Troop’s Girl Scout Cookie Booth
Manually Entered Credit Card Information Payments
Manually entered credit card transaction will occur when a card’s magstripe is not readable, or your card reader will not properly work with your phone. Keep in mind that iPhones and Android phones will need a different card readers. When you are unable to have the card information automatically read, you’ll have to enter the credit card information into the app yourself. Doing so will cost you a bit extra.
Manually Entered Fees – 3.5% of the total transaction plus .15¢
All credit cards and debit cards are charged the same rate. Square will deduct their processing fees from the total transaction, and deposit the reminder directly into your bank account.
Other than the processing fees listed above; there are no additional or hidden fees to use Square to take credit card payments at your cookie booth!
There are no fees for:
- Activation
- Downloading the Square Point of Sale app
- Square Support
- Refunds
- Account inactivity
- End-to-end encrypted payments
- Active fraud prevention
- Next-business-day deposits
- Free Square Reader for magstripe
- Early termination
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