As I was getting from the airport to my hotel in Columbus, Ohio, I took a taxi. Upon disembarking, it was time to pay and I noticed a credit card device hanging at the back of the passenger seat (this seems to be more common in the USA these days thankfully).\u00a0<\/p>\n
However, the driver told me not to swipe it there. He\u2019d prefer to use Square<\/a> as he would save on fees. So he plugged the Square dongle into his phone, swiped my card, I gave him his tip via the app, signed virtually, and the receipt automatically arrived via email.<\/p>\n A much better workflow for me (since I don\u2019t have to deal with a paper receipt). But it got me thinking. Square charges<\/a> a 2.75% fee up-front. This is by no means cheap<\/em>. However it does guarantee the money in your bank account within a day or two.<\/p>\n I\u2019m willing to bet that the device tethered to his cab might charge less (or close to equivalent?), but pay-out over a longer period of time. For whomever installed that device, they\u2019re going to presume that no one uses the credit card terminal. This is the bonus of competition \u2013 the consumer isn\u2019t affected (arguably, the consumer experience improved \u2013 it wasn\u2019t too long ago that all taxis were cash-only affairs) and the driver wins.<\/p>\nShare this:<\/h3>