The Differences Between a Square and MagicPay Merchant Account

The mobile credit card processing industry is growing now faster than ever. The convenience of accepting credit cards on the go drives more merchants to open their own mobile merchant account and start accepting credit cards at their customers’ location. Companies like Square and MagicPay have placed their target towards small business owners and new businesses by offering no contract, no commitment merchant account. One of the biggest downsides among credit card processors for merchants is the high fees that are typically found on their long term and hard to terminate contracts. Due to the bad reputation of many merchant services companies some merchants are afraid to have a long term commitment with their credit card processor and try to avoid it if possible. By offering these no commitment plans, MagicPay and Square were able to gain customers quicker than others and build trust among their clients.

Although both have similar merchant plans there are some major differences between the two processors and they vary from customer service techniques to app features to other merchant solutions, rates and pricing.

App Features

There is no doubt that both apps that Square and MagicPay are using are great applications. Both work on the same concept, providing the ability to accept credit cards using a smartphone or tablet. Although both are very similar in many ways MagicPay has some extra features that still do not exist under the Square platform.  Offline processing for example is a feature that allows merchants to store credit card details of a customer on their phone and authorize it later if there is no phone reception at the moment of sale. Under the Square platform a merchant will be out of luck if cellular reception is out of reach. Both provide an online web portal for their merchants but under the MagicPay platform a merchant would be able to integrate between the app and Quickbooks if that is their accounting software, saving expensive bookkeeping time for the merchant.

Pricing

Square is very well known for its flat 2.75% per swipe, simple but may be expensive for some users. MagicPay offers 3 different merchant plans for its mobile customers in order to provide flexibility and the freedom of choice to its merchants. Flat plans are available at 2.70% per swipe and advanced plan with lower rates are available from $12.95 per month. If you typically take credit cards over the phone or at transactions where the card might not be present, MagicPay is offering a plan that starts at 2.75% and goes up to 3.50% with no transaction fee for keyed in cards, saving you $0.15 and possibly some money on interchange at every transaction.

Card Reader

MagicPay and Square both provide a free card reader to its merchants, but the two are very different. If you were a Square customer you probably got tired of re-swiping a card close to 5 times before getting the app to read it, gave up and inserted the credit card number on the app manually, resulting in extra expense that could’ve been prevented if the card reader was working the first time. MagicPay has renovated the card reader and made it wider, allowing a successful swipe at the first time and preventing unneeded frustration and extra charge on manually entering credit card details.

Customer Service

Probably the most major difference between the two is customer service and technical support strategy. Square handles all of its inquiries and customer service and support claims online on its website. If a customer needs an immediate assistance he would have to wait approximately 24 hours before a customer service representative from Square will provide a solution via email, sometimes resulting in delayed answer which meantime may have an impact on the way you are doing business. MagicPay offers 24/7 customer service and support representatives that will be expecting your call at any time on the customer support line. From the moment your inquire about the service and all the way through the life of your account, you can be sure to count on MagicPay when it comes to your processing needs.

Sometimes it’s these little things that make the biggest differences when you are making a decision. Whether you are going with MagicPay or not, most likely you will be satisfied with your future processor, but, if any of the above differences is important to you and your business we will be happy to assist you and provide you with further knowledge about your merchant account. Feel free to contact us or sign up. For full features description of each plan click here. For all pricing information about mobile credit card processing you may visit our pricing page.