Why are fees higher for manually-entered transactions?

[Sharonda]

In some cases a cell phone is unavailbale. Can you use the virtual terminal and a insert card reader into the laptop? If not, please provide other options. Thank you!

[katieand]

Hi @Sharonda - With virtual terminal, you just key in payments to your computer. Learn more about it here: https://squareup.com/help/us/en/article/5807-get-started-with-virtual-terminal

[WTPC]

Question, is a stored credit card that I run a transaction on considered a keyed in transaction and at the 3.5% + .15 cents?

[VanKalkerFarms]

yes, @WTPC, card on file is 3.5% + 15¢.

https://squareup.com/help/us/en/article/5068-what-are-square-s-fees

[Demokritos]

I have a card reader that I acquired somehow in the past, so I thought I would try to use it while waiting for the official one to arrive in the mail.  It wouldn't work.  I just got no response whatsoever.  Is that because it isn't a special one assigned to me or did I do something wrong?

[VanKalkerFarms]

one of the first things I'm thinking is if you don't know how you got it or where it was is that it is the old style that doesn't work anymore.  for the first few years, they had one that they stopped supporting due to newer encryption.

Nothing is tied to an account from a reader they are just "dumb devices" that are only tied to whatever account the app is logged into.

[Skn]

I was charged the manual fees on my trial when I swiped my card. Never entered my credit card number. Why was this?

[Helen]

@Skn I'm very sorry for the delay in this reply!

If you received free processing as part of Square's Referral Program the per transaction fee is still assessed when you swipe a card - but the fee is then credited back to you before funds are deposited to your bank account. There's information about how to confirm your reimbursed processing fees in this Support Center article. 

[QCK]

Hi I was at an event yesterday and many cars transactions took place, a lot of cards when swiped through the reader just wouldn’t register any activity n customers get nervous when u swipe multiple times thinking they wl be charged multiple times

so I ended up manually entering their info-heartbreaking to know I have to pay extra for that! I have a brand new reader so I’m just perplexed it did that but I lost in the bargain 😥

[Helen]

Thanks for your post @QCK, I'm sorry to hear about the trouble you had using the reader at your event! These magstripe reader troubleshooting steps should help but if the reader still isn't working go ahead and call our CS team so they can see what the issue might be.