Today Square released their new FREE payment service called Cash. We’ve been playing with it and are amazed by its simplicity. As with any emerging system that deals with money there are going to be plenty of security fears – and we don’t have answers to any of those yet. But we were feeling brave enough to give the system a try and here’s exactly how it all works.
Square Cash Video Demo
If you’d like to watch a screen capture of the process here you go.
Sending Money with Square Cash
Step One
Simply compose an email to your Cash recipient.
After you send it, you’ll get a confirmation from Square.
Step Two
Click on the CONFIRM link in your email and it will take you to a screen to enter your Debit Card info.
That screen kind of changes colors, and gives you nice looking backgrounds and stuff. There are some layout issues when trying to resize the screen, and its really overly fancy. I suppose they are just trying to make it look like you have to do a lot more than you really need to do!
Step Three
There is no Step Three! Well, unless you want to consider the fact that your recipient first gets an email telling you that you’re about to get cash.
Then another telling them they have cash and just need to DEPOSIT it!
Depositing it consists of the recipient doing the exact same process of adding their debit card, and that’s it!
Once you’ve added a debit card, you no longer have to go back through that process in the future.
Square Cash Questions
How secure is all of this?
Well, Square promises that they are using their anti-fraud processes to keep things on the up and up. But no one really knows what kind of abuse this system might have yet.
How do I use more than one debit card if I want to send cash from different accounts?
No idea just yet.
How do I delete my debit card if I change banks, or just want to quit Cash?
No idea just yet.
Is there any other way to send money using Cash?
You can get the Android or iOS apps and do it that way.
No mention of transaction fees. Interact has a similar capability tied to my online banking. As long as your recipient also uses online banking that supports Interac payments, I feel that environment is more clearly secure. Also, depending on your bank and your account type, you can send one or more Interac email payments per month without service charges. Interac works here in Canada, does Square?
Square may be the better option for international payments but I don’t like that my debit card can be used without the PIN.
TED