- Highs: No monthly fees or commitment. Can purchase in instalments. Very user-friendly terminal.
- Lows: On-terminal POS features not expandable. Doesn’t work with 3G/4G. Requires additional hub to connect with cash drawer.
- Buy if: You want to save money and counter space by using one compact terminal as your main POS system.
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How Square Terminal works
The latest card machine by Square, the Terminal model, works as a standalone payment and POS terminal with software and receipt printer built in. It accepts chip and contactless cards (with a slot for foreign swipe cards), or you can key in card details manually for phone payments.
Accepted cards
Contrary to traditional card machines, Square Terminal is more than just for card payments. You can, for example, accept gift cards and edit your product library on the terminal.
From start to completion of each transaction, you use the touchscreen to navigate POS functions, like you would in the Square Point of Sale app for Square Reader. Customers enter their PIN on the touchscreen too.
All transactions and activities on the terminal are connected to your backend Square account where you can access more features, ecommerce and integrations with additional tools.
The terminal needs to be connected to the internet via WiFi. Optionally, you can purchase a Hub for Square Terminal that allows you to connect via Ethernet cable. It does not work with 4G or other network connections the way your phone does.
Want a cheaper card machine? Learn more about Square Reader
Costs and payouts
A major upside to Square is their simple costs. You just pay for the terminal, then a fixed transaction rate for any debit and credit cards processed. There is no minimum sales volume required, no payout fees and no contract lock-in. Unless you have opted to pay for the terminal over a number of months, there are no fixed monthly costs.
The Square card machine costs £199 + VAT upfront. You can also choose to pay in instalments of 3, 6 or 12 interest-free monthly payments (subject to credit check and approval). If you choose to pay over 12 months, you pay a monthly instalment of £17 – an attractive option for many startups. The repayments are handled internally by Square, not by a third party provider, and the first payment is taken when you place the order.
| Charges | |
|---|---|
| Square Terminal – upfront price | £199 + VAT |
| Square Terminal – instalments | £17 x 12 months |
| Hub for Square Terminal (optional) | £29 + VAT |
| Shipping | Free |
| Chip & contactless card rate | 1.75% |
| Key-in card rate | 2.5% |
| Settlement in bank account | Free |
| Instant Transfers (optional) | 1% added to card rate |
| Refunds | Free |
| Chargebacks | Free |
If you’re connecting the terminal to other hardware, you’ll need the Hub for Square Terminal costing £29 + VAT.
In Square’s store, you can buy the following compatible accessories:
- Countertop mount: £15 + VAT
- Belt clip: £45 + VAT
- Barcode scanner: £74.99 + VAT
Transactions cost a fixed rate, 1.75%, for all chip, contactless and swipe card payments through the terminal regardless of card brand, country of issue or whether it is premium. All key-in payments through the terminal or online via Square Invoices, Online Store or Virtual Terminal cost 2.5% per transaction.
Refunds are free to process and chargebacks incur no admin fees. You even get free payment dispute support from the Square team, in case a chargeback should incur.
Transactions are automatically cleared – for free – in your bank account within 1-2 working days. If you want the money faster, you can activate Instant Transfers in your account and a 1% transaction fee will be added to the card rate – you then receive the money in your bank account nearly instantly (within a couple of hours). For example, for chip and PIN cards, you pay 2.75% per transaction with Instant Transfers.
Photo: Emily Sorensen (ES), Mobile Transaction
PIN on glass – i.e. on the touchscreen of an industry-approved terminal like Square Terminal – has been deemed highly secure.
Physically, it’s a bit heavier than a traditional Ingenico card machine (417 g versus circa 300 g). This is due to the large screen, whereas a mainstream terminal with PIN pad only has a small screen. Underneath are two rubber strips to keep it stable on a desk, and a hole if you need to screw the terminal to a surface.
Square Terminal’s battery can last all day without a charge, which is impressive given the large, energy-consuming touchscreen. However, we found that leaving it on standby drains the battery completely by the next day.
Photo: ES, Mobile Transaction
Underneath the terminal.
Therefore, we recommend switching it off completely when you don’t plan on using it to avoid having to recharge it first the next time you need it.
Photo: ES, Mobile Transaction
The power cable socket and power/standby button are on the left side of the terminal.
Because it runs on a local, secured WiFi connection, it can be used across your premises, for example for taking payments at the customer’s table. The Ethernet connection through the Hub could be necessary if your WiFi is unreliable, but then you have to keep the Terminal connected at the till point.
| Tech specs | |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | 142.2 (L) x 86.4 (W) x 63.5 (H) mm |
| Screen size | 139.7 mm (5.5″) |
| Weight | 417 g |
| Data | WiFi (secured network only), Ethernet via Hub |
| Card technology | EMV (chip), NFC (contactless), swipe |
| Battery life | All day from full charge |
| Built-in receipt printer | Uses 57 mm (width) x 35 mm (diameter) thermal receipt paper |
| Accessories included | Square Terminal, power adaptor, receipt paper roll, ‘accepted cards’ decals |
Software features are very similar to Square Reader’s mobile app, Square Point of Sale. For instance, the checkout screen gives you two options for adding to the shopping cart: enter transaction/price amounts manually or tap to add products from the library.
Enter an amount to add to the bill.
The product menu is one of the checkout screens.
The checkout flow and products can be edited on the terminal – no need to log in on a computer to do it. Add product variants like size and colour and enable the “Eat-in” or “Takeaway” options if you’re a café, all of which can be selected during the checkout flow.
What about transaction options? You can accept cash, payment cards and mobile wallets, ‘card on file’ saved in the customer library, gift cards (which can be issued from the terminal too), invoicing and manually-entered card details. Split the tender, add either custom or preset tipping amounts, and once the transaction is complete, either choose to print, email or text the receipt.
Payment methods. Pop-up explains cash option.
Receipt options after a transaction.
The customer library enables you to add a person to the invoice rather than entering recipient details manually. You can create and send Square Invoices directly on the terminal, accessed from the side menu. Over-the-phone payments are also possible – just add products or enter an amount on the regular checkout screen and choose manual card payment as the payment method.
Transactions, sales history and reports can be viewed on the terminal. In fact, you go to Transactions to process a refund (itemised or custom amount) or resend a receipt via email or text. Receipts can be customised in Settings, and food places can set the Terminal to print order tickets.
Transactions overview.
Sales summary.
Significant things you cannot do on the Terminal, which the mobile app can do, include:
- Access team management features
- Do more complicated product library edits
The software is updated automatically daily when the Terminal is connected to the internet. Just be prepared to wait for the update to process when you switch on the terminal every day (it took minutes on most days we tested it). For increased security, set the terminal to require password login every time it’s used. You can reset the password on the terminal if needed.
Photo: ES, Mobile Transaction
Square’s built-in receipt printer produces itemised and customised receipts, as opposed to traditional card machines that only display transaction totals.
Square Terminal vs. Square Reader
Given how cheap the Square card reader is, you may be wondering why there’s a big price difference. Put simply, Square Terminal is a premium, self-sufficient card machine from Square, while Square Reader has no screen, no PIN pad, no receipt printer and no app features on the card reader itself. The Reader is fully dependent on the Square POS app on a connected smartphone, iPad or Android tablet.
