Square Ireland review: easy face-to-face and online payments for few fees

Our experience and verdict

If value for money is key to your choice of card reader, Square is one of the leading options in Ireland. It has the most free features for the price of a cheap card reader and fixed transaction rate (or you can even just use the app or online payment features without buying a card reader).

The pay-as-you-go structure with no contractual commitment makes it a good place to start at a low startup cost.

A big advantage of Square is the many online payment tools available without a monthly fee, which makes you more resilient in the face of unpredictable business conditions.

What’s more, growing businesses can use Square with external software for e.g. inventory, scheduling, marketing etc. so you are never really limited to a closed platform.

Square fees

Square card processing fees are just a fixed rate of 1.75% + VAT per chip and PIN and contactless payment regardless of the card brand or whether it is premium or from abroad. Cash payments are free to process. No additional or monthly fees apply.

With Square, you don’t commit to a contract period, nor do you need to sell every month or have a certain sales volume.

Remote or online payments are charged a higher rate. Manual card entry transactions in the Point of Sale app cost 2.95% + 25¢ (applies to both when the customer is and is not present). Virtual terminal and invoice payments cost a bit more at 2.5% + VAT.

Online payments through the online store, payment links and eGift Cards are 1.4% + 25¢ + VAT for Irish, EU and EEA cards and 2.9% + 25¢ + VAT for UK and non-EEA cards.

Refunds cost the original transaction fee, but the cardholder gets the full refund amount back. Nothing is charged for chargebacks that are dealt with for free by a dedicated support team for payment disputes.

If you annual card turnover is over €100,000, you can get custom rates from Square.

Payments are deposited in your bank account within 1-2 working days. This is automatic by default, but you can also set it to manual deposits if that simplifies bookkeeping.

Square Reader costs €13 + VAT, and the optional Dock for charging and keeping the card reader in place costs €35 + VAT.

The newest Square Stand (2nd generation), that accepts contactless and chip cards, is €119 + VAT. If you want to avoid buying an iPad, you can opt for the all-in-one Square Register for €599 + VAT which combines a fancy-looking tablet screen and card reader into a complete checkout.

The general Point of Sale app is free. Additional employee permissions can be added for €25 + VAT per month per location (Team Plus subscription).

The specialised POS systems Square for Restaurants, Retail or Appointments have a free plan to get you started, but they require a paid subscription for advanced features (starting from €19 + VAT monthly per location).

There’s a free, basic online store plan, but you can upgrade to more features on paid ecommerce plans (€25-€69 per month on an annual plan).

Any third-party integrations are paid for separately through those other software platforms.

Some don’t like inputting their PIN via software on a multi-use commercial device, but PIN on COTS is officially approved by the PCI Security Standards Council, so we do not see any cause for concern for merchants or payers.

That said, we recommend positioning the mobile screen so it’s easy to shield the on-screen keypad during PIN entry, allowing customers to feel safe doing so.

Alternatively, the new Tap to Pay on Android option allows Square users to accept contactless cards and mobile wallets directly on their Android device – no card reader needed. For this to work, you need NFC (near-field communication) activated on your phone.

Square POS app

The free POS app Point of Sale is a big draw. It has the widest breadth of free features in Ireland for managing sales and business operations from any compatible Android or Apple device.

Apart from accepting cards through the contactless and chip reader, you can manually enter card details, send invoices and accept cash as well as create custom discounts, add tips and split the tender so customers can pay some of the transaction with a card and the rest with cash. You can also sell digital gift cards to be redeemed in your store.

The product inventory is great for tablets especially, as you can view a neat table of products, the layout of which can be customised. Each product can have a picture, description, types (e.g. red, black, pack of 2, pack of 5), different prices for each type, and stock levels.

To get the most out of Square’s tools, we suggest adding all the items you sell to the library before using the app. This enables you to track product popularity and differentiate between items when processing a refund. And of course, it makes it easier at checkout to just tap the product rather than manually entering each item or calculating a sales total, which are both possible as well.

You can also take advantage of the customer library where customer profiles can be added. This allows you to attach people to specific transactions, get customer feedback, track product preferences and manage sales more efficiently.

Businesses can add staff accounts with limited permissions in the app. Creating a user account for each employee enables you to create time sheets in Square for tracking hours and overtime worked.

Restaurants can upgrade to Square for Restaurants, retailers to Square for Retail and professional services to Square Appointments, with features tailored to those industries.

The highly customisable Restaurants EPOS has table plans, menu and course management options, a kitchen display system (KDS) and more. The Retail EPOS mainly offers more inventory and vendor management features and better reporting. The Appointments POS is for scheduling workshops, service sessions, classes and anything else that’s time-based.

So far, you can only integrate Square with Ricochet in Ireland as an alternative point of sale. So if you opt for Square, you should be sure the platform has the right POS system for your needs.

Square alternatives

So how does Square compare to other card payment services in Ireland? Its closest competitor is SumUp that, like Square, has pay-as-you-go fees without a monthly charge or lock-in. Clover’s touchscreen terminals may look similar, but they have various monthly fees and contractual commitment.

Popular SumUp Air has a PIN pad made of flat, touch-sensitive glass that’s easy to wipe. But Square Reader is smaller and comes with more POS app features.

As for standalone card machines, SumUp Solo is cheaper than Square Terminal, but its software is too basic for some merchants (e.g. there is no inventory or customer library). But Square Terminal only works with WiFi, not the mobile network like SumUp’s card machines.

myPOS is another pay-as-you-go merchant service, but it’s more complicated to set up and use, with confusing fees too. Those with a Revolut Business account could try Revolut Reader, but the associated POS features are much more limited than Square’s.

Restaurants and cafés might want to look at other hospitality POS systems for an informed decision about whether Square is best.

Hardware and accessories

For a full point of sale setup, you can wirelessly connect Square with compatible receipt printers, kitchen printers (for restaurants), cash drawers and barcode scanners. What other accessories are available? The card reader dock can be attached to a countertop and keeps the reader charged all day.

Square Stand for iPad enables you to swivel the tablet screen to face the customer for PIN entry. It has a contactless reader and chip card slot built in so you don’t need an additional card reader next to it. But the stand is only compatible with 10.2” or 10.5” iPads, not Android or other iPad sizes.

Square-branded equipment generally looks very Apple-inspired – sleek and minimalistic – so prioritising iPad compatibility is not surprising.

Quite a few receipt printers work with the system, but some only work via Square Stand in which case you need to use iPad, not Android. There is also a compatible kitchen printer that can withstand heat, which is ideal for printing order tickets in hot restaurant kitchens.

Square Register is a smart choice if you plan on using Square’s POS system for more than a year. It has a tablet screen and customer-facing card terminal, though not a cash drawer.

Reports and accounting

In any supported internet browser, you can log into your Square account and export data to Excel for accounting purposes. Because the system is cloud-based, the account is synced with shop activities in real time so you can always check in on how sales are going.

The POS app also shows transactions, payouts, amount of cash in the till drawer (if cash management is on) and sales reports you can email from the app.

Image: MobileTransaction

Dashboard gives you an overview of sales from any web browser.

The analytics are in-depth compared to similar card reader services. Square Dashboard provides an overview of key sales data, but many more analytics are accessed in the reports section. You can, among other things, analyse employee sales, taxes, product categories and product modifiers applied to sales.

For more complex accounting features, the system integrates with Xero, FreshBooks and other supported software.

Who is it best for?

Square aims to suit every business type. Having tested the POS app, we can verify it’s especially useful in the retail and hospitality sectors – food-and-drink in particular – due to its comprehensive product library, checkout functions, tipping, analytics and staff management features.

Those selling at multiple locations can distinguish between sales at different locations. And let’s not forget the very small size of the card reader, which makes it the handiest for mobile payments at, for example, market stalls, home visits and conferences.

As with other payment companies, Square has a list of prohibited businesses. Some of these industries include pharmaceuticals, adult products and services, certain marketing services, certain financial services, and illegal or otherwise questionable products and services.

Customer support, reviews and complaints

Square is available to phone or email between 9am and 5pm Monday to Friday. There is no weekend or evening support, which is fine if the system works, but not so good if you need support at night in a bar, for example.

Since Square only recently arrived in Ireland, very few Irish users have left a review of it. We can therefore not give an account of domestic user experiences, but UK and US reviews are largely positive. There have been complaints are about unresponsive customer service, account verification issues and in some rare cases, withheld payments, but Square Ireland may have a different standard.

What we can say is: the online resource section is comprehensive, with guides and articles covering many aspects of the products and features. Most merchants will be able to find an answer there, so you may not need to contact support.

Some users in other countries report having their account rejected out of the blue, but it appears many of them are types of businesses deemed as high risk.

Getting started

Before purchasing a card machine, you need to sign up for a Square account and connect your bank account. It typically takes four days to have a bank account verified, but you can still take payments before the verification is finalised. After completing the straightforward sign-up form, you can order a card reader.

It is still limited where you can buy Square’s products in Ireland other than Square’s own website. You could try buying from Currys or HuntOffice, but these might end up pricier compared with Square’s own promotional offers.

We connected a personal bank account with a history of receiving sole trader income, and this was verified after four days. To be accepted, Square requires that the bank account allows for both deposits and withdrawals to support the refund and chargeback system. Online-only accounts like PayPal are not supported, nor are prepaid card accounts. Furthermore, your bank account must operate in euros.

Photo: ES, MobileTransaction

Our card reader arrived two days after ordering it online.

Our Square Reader order was a positive experience. We received the securely-packaged parcel two days after purchase. Prior to the free delivery, we got text notifications saying when it’ll arrive, with options to pick a specific time or request leaving it at a neighbour’s address.

When the account is set up, it’s time to download the Square Point of Sale app on your smartphone or tablet and log in. The card reader can then be connected to your mobile device via Bluetooth – and you’re ready to take your first payment.