We’ve all been slowly waiting, wishing and hoping that Square, the mobile payment brainchild of Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, would make it to Australia some day. If you can’t wait any longer, maybe try the PayPal alternative? It is free after all.
It’s called PayPal Here, and despite the name suggesting that it’s out right now, we can expect it some time in the next month. It’s already out in North America and Hong Kong, though and there are about 1000 people trialling it right now.
PayPal Here is a little dongle that plugs into the headphone jack on your iPhone, iPad, Android smartphone or tablet and once connected via a PayPal app, it acts as a card reader, allowing you to take payments.
PayPal Australia tell us that it will be free to get your hands on one of the dongles when it goes live, but there will be merchant fees involved with transacting.
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PayPal came round and did a lamington drive for National Lamington Day (you bet your hat it’s a thing) coming up this weekend. We paid for our lamingtons with a PayPal Here unit, and after a few fails thanks to a dodgy data connection here in Circular Quay, Sydney, we processed the payment, signed for it on the screen of the iPhone and enjoyed delicious bakery treats.
The Here dongle is a little awkwardly designed, but it does the job if you’re a mobile merchant at a market or a personal trainer or a tradie looking to get cash for a job nice and fast.
So far, it’s still better than Square, which still isn’t available in Australia. Le sigh.
Would you get a PayPal Here?