​Credit Card Readers and Money Transfers

Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay

While I am mainly going to write about Square, there are other companies that do the same thing. Since we use Square though, and others probably perform similarly, I’ll start there.
 
Last year at the Studio Tour, Windstream went down in our area for most of the day. We were using StarLink at the time, so the folks at our stop were able to continue using their card readers. I think everyone taking CC’s were using Square, partly because that’s what we know so that’s what we recommend. A link to their website is HERE.  
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Aside from the opportunity to bash Windstream, I want to add that the folks at our stop this year were using Square again. This time though, they didn’t need the Square reader which attaches to your smartphone, instead, they were able to use the phones NFC chip to read credit cards. It was very cool to see that. Basically, after ‘ringing up’ the charge, it prompts for the card and you slip it behind the phone and the Square software reads the card. It was impressive.
 
I’m sure there are alternatives to Square, feel free to read about some HERE. 
 
There are a million ways to easily transfer money, Western Union, PayPal, Google Pay, Zelle, and more. We use Zelle most often. Once you set it up, it’s pretty straightforward. Like everything else, there are nuances to get used to, but then it’s easy-peasy. Receiving the money takes some setup as well, but again, once that is done, it’s done and the money goes where it’s setup to go. Since there are various apps for that as well, I’m including some more informative reading HERE.
 
Deposit your checks without going to the bank. Yes, that’s right. Do you still drive somewhere to deposit a check someone gives you? You may not need to. Many banks these days have an option to deposit checks via a photo sent from your smartphone. Download your banks app for that, and follow the instructions. The software will guide you through the process and tell you when to take a pic of the front and back of the check. Assuming it’s a good pic and a good check, it will deposit the money into your account. Following is a link that helps explain the process further, HERE.