Square to save sellers $350 in processing fees if they use Apple Pay

By Ken Yeung for VentureBeat

Square wants to encourage more usage of Apple Pay, and to do so, it’s cutting some of its fees. The cuts will save businesses up to $350 so they can process more than $12,000 in payments through the mobile payment technology — but only for a limited time.

In order to participate, Square is asking customers to set up the Apple Pay marketing kit, which features signage and the card reader, and submit a picture of it being displayed. Then, Square will review and approve each entry. Once that’s completed, up to $350 in processing fees will be waived.

The relationship between Square and Apple goes back to 2015 when the first Apple Pay reader debuted at the Worldwide Apple Developer Conference. The device rolled out in November of that year through Square’s website before being sold at Apple retail stores several months later. Although Square repeatedly touts its integration with Apple Pay, saying that it once received 350,000 preorders for its reader, Square declined to cite exactly how much of its total payment volume came from it.

For businesses, using Square’s Apple Pay reader not only gives them the ability to accept a modern form of payment, but also brings them in compliance with regulations around EMV or chip cards.

“It’s no secret that chip cards can be slow, which is why we built our reader to also accept contactless payments, a faster and safer way to pay,” said Jesse Dorogusker, Square’s hardware lead. “Anything we can do to make a seller’s experience faster and safer, including working with Apple to encourage Apple Pay usage, is an investment worth making.”

First appeared at VB