If you provide any type of service online or if utilizing mobile billing would be a great convenience, PayPal and Square Up are two services you may consider. The more payment options we can accept, the more prospective clients we can approach and the greater the flexibility we will provide for our clientele as well as for our business. Let’s look closer at these two payment options and what advantages and disadvantages they hold.
What is PayPal?
PayPal is a service that supports mobile payments and is an alternative to conventional methods of value transfer such as checks and money orders. One may be surprised to know that Elon Musk was one of the founders of PayPal. Before becoming involved with the high-tech projects most people know him for, Musk founded the online bank X.com which eventually became PayPal.
Money transfers made between PayPal account holders do not incur fees. Receiving payment from a client’s bank account to our PayPal account is fast and easy. There is a fee structure for payments from non-PayPal sources.
Other than the web service we can access from our computer or other devices, PayPal has an app that makes its features even smoother for mobile use. The interface is intuitive and service is seamless.
What is Square Up?
Square Up, also known as Square, is a free app that helps us conduct transactions for all stages of our business. It provides real-time data so that we have an up-to-date picture of how our business is doing. Square Up also allows us to customize the app so that we can obtain insights that are specific to our business. The app allows the capacity to process credit cards, a useful feature for startups and small and medium enterprises.
Using PayPal to Bill Customers
The advantages of using mobile billing with PayPal are akin to those of using the services of a reputable bank. The benefits center around convenience and reliability.
Credit Card Security
PayPal has a good track record handling credit card transactions. Clients can feel safe transacting via credit card through PayPal.
Large Customer Base
With an estimated customer base of over 295 million account holders, as reported in late 2019, it is very likely that our clients will either have a PayPal account or be willing to open one in order to transact.
Flexibility
With 24 currencies used to facilitate transactions in 190 markets, the flexibility to interact with virtually any type of client is a key benefit of PayPal.
Monitoring Transactions
The neat interface allows us to intuitively view all incoming and outgoing transactions so that our accounting is made simple. After mobile billing we can head back to the office to reassess.
Disadvantages of PayPal
Fees for non-PayPal payments can be unsustainable for small transactions and businesses that conduct many such low-profit margin sales. Also, getting answers to particular customer service queries may be a challenge.
Mobile Billing With Square Up
Square Up offers its own benefits that make it useful for business owners. While Square Up is experiencing growth, it is not as prevalent as PayPal and its user base is not as large. Let’s look at some of the pros and cons of using the service.
Fee Options
Square Up gives us the flexibility of being able to choose between a rate per swipe or a flat monthly fee. This gives businesses of varying sizes the ability to select the option that is best for their use-case.
Fast Processing
With Square Up, we can get paid the next day while transaction speeds are lightning-fast.
Insightful Analytics
Square Up includes a feature that shows photos of items purchased on receipts. This clever addition can be useful in identifying trends or just being able to get a picture of sales with a glance.
Does Square Up Have Disadvantages?
For all its convenience and innovation, Square Up lacks in the customer support department, much like PayPal. Other than a knowledge base that provides answers to the most common problems a user may face, coming in contact with a human support representative can be a task.
Selecting a Service for Mobile Billing Customers
Mobile billing is a necessary capability for small business owners. Being able to process credit cards and receive mobile payments from our clients can mean the difference between growing our clientele and leaving money on the table.
PayPal and Square Up each have their own benefits that make sense depending on the size of the business, our transaction sizes and the amount of data analysis we require. Choosing a service for our mobile billing requires figuring out what our average transaction size is, how many transactions per month our business gets and comparing these numbers against the fee schedules for each service.
Likewise, checking out all the bells and whistles each payment service offers will give a better picture as to which one is best for our needs. At the end of the day, it doesn’t hurt to have both a PayPal and a Square Up account. We can always divide up your incoming payments accordingly so as to pay the least amount possible in fees.
