Square Shakes Up Fee Structure

November 12, 2013         By: Kevin Xu

By February 1st, customers of the payment processor and dongle purveyor, Square, will find a shakeup in their payment plan offerings.

Square plans to get rid of their monthly pricing options – permanently. Those who are still onboard for monthly pricing will find that their plan will continue on until January, when their rates will automatically transition into Square’s pay-per-swipe plan of 2.75%.

As for Square’s reasoning for doing away with the monthly plan, the company says, “We launched a monthly flat rate to offer flexibility in pricing for larger businesses. Over the past year we heard from many of our customers that caps and limits in the program were inhibiting growth—at a certain point, rates went back up the more you sold. So, effective February 1, 2014, we’re replacing the Square monthly pricing program with one low per-swipe rate for your business.”

The change comes in response to the complaints of larger businesses. The monthly rate carried an annual processing cap of $250,000 after which, rates would be a standard 2.75% of transactions. These same larger businesses may be able to lock in a lower rate than the standard 2.75% with some haggling.