The mobile payment processing space got a little more crowded today with the launch of Sage Mobile Payments, a product targeting small and medium-sized businesses.
Much like Square and Intuit’s GoPayment system, Sage Mobile Payments offers a plastic credit card reader that plugs into the audio jack of a smartphone. How Sage is hoping to differentiate themselves is with their pricing structure. Rather than charging processing fees for each transaction, their plan is to charge customers a “nominal set-up fee” and a monthly fee starting at $10.95.
Whereas Square seems to be an ideal fit for sole proprietorships and microbusinesses, Sage Mobile Payments is hoping to catch the attention of small and medium-sized businesses, who tend to process a higher volume of transactions.
“SMBs need to look at total cost of ownership when it comes to selecting a mobile payments solution,” said Greg Hammermaster, president of Sage Payment Solutions in a press release. “Some competing mobile payments offerings add 1 percent plus upwards of 37 cents to the processing fees, which can easily turn into well over $130 in extra fees for every $10,000 in credit card volume. While this pricing is good for individuals that don’t process a lot of credit card transactions, it can be quite costly for businesses using their mobile device to process credit cards on a regular basis.”
Sage’s solution, which works with or without the plastic credit card reader, is compatible with over 400 different mobile devices on most major carriers.
What do you think about Sage’s approach? Would you rather pay a monthly fee for mobile credit card processing or pay on a per-transaction basis?
