PayPal Here Offers Mobile Payments To SMBs

The PayPal Here chip and pin reader has been made available to all businesses in the UK, promising to make it easier and more secure for SMBs to accept credit and debit card payments offline at any location.

PayPal first announced the service earlier this year and says it will make it easier for businesses or people that traditionally deal in cash, such as market stalls, taxi drivers and tradesmen, to gain more custom.

To sign up for PayPal Here, users download a free smartphone application from the App Store or Google Play and enter some details about their business. A card reader can then be ordered for £99 and is then paired with a mobile device through a Bluetooth connection.

PayPal Here reader

Once connected, users can accept cards and log cash and cheque payments, while also issuing electronic receipts and invoices. PayPal takes a 2.75 percent cut for a chip and pin payment and charges 3.4 percent and an additional 20 pence for payments made by swiping the card or manually entering in the card details. Additional charges apply for international transactions.

The reader is also comaptible with PayPal Check-in, which lets customers use just an app and their face to authorise a payment.

“Small businesses are the lifeblood of the British economy. And in tough economic times, they can’t afford to turn away sales,” said PayPal earlier this year. “Yet that’s what many are doing, because they’ve been unable to find an affordable way of accepting credit and debit card payments, especially for face to face transactions. Card payments have been an exclusive club – until now.

“PayPal Here is unique: a complete payment solution that allows any business to accept PayPal, credit and debit card payments simply and securely on the go.”

PayPal Here was launched in the US last year in the form of a thumb-sized credit card that plugs into a smartphone’s headphone jack. PayPal explained that at the same time, it deployed a team in Britain to create a version for the UK and other markets where Chip and PIN payments are standard.

What do you know about the smartphones of 2013? Try our quiz!