Will Square ever be able to accept Electronic Benefit Card (EBT) payments?

[MichaelJMutch]

Will Square ever be able to accept Electronic Benefit Card (EBT) (food stamps) payments?

[#2]

For those who might be interested, here is our set-up for EBT.

We use a third party company for running EBT, which has a card reader and a pinpad. The companies vary by state, we use FIS. 

We hold an Arizona restaurant/hot meals EBT license and can accept just about everything on EBT except energy drinks and retail items like coffee mugs or keychains.

We use the code "E" in the notes section to be able to track which sales are EBT. We still record everything in Square so that we have data for all sales in one place.

Here are the steps we provide for our cashiers.

1. Remove non-eligible retail items from ticket for a separate transaction. Tell the customer “I will ring these up separately for you.”
2. Remove tax from ticket.
3. Take payment on EBT machine for total of eligible items and offer customer receipt.
4. Choose “CHARGE” on Square.
5. Choose “OTHER PAYMENT TYPE.”
6. Type “E” in “Notes.”
7. Choose “TENDER.”

[morageek]

We've been asking for 5+ years. It's pretty obvious, they can't or won't implement it.

[European-Foods]

We use Merchant Services and they gave us a free credit card processor. Also it is only about 1% fee, 3 times cheaper than square.)). It’s not all that difficult, you plug it into the network or get wireless, and directions very easy and fast. On the Square POS we enter payment as Other then enter EBT so we can track for taxes. Yes not easy or convient, but really not all that troublesome either. Also Merchant Services are extremely helpful to get you started. You just call them and they walk you through it and you do a sample charge on your own credit card to test. And technically you can use them for all your credit card and EBT services if want and save 2% which can add up to hundreds of $$ per month on a small store. 

[European-Foods]

TotilPay is not the answer and expensive. We use Merchant Services and they gave us a free credit card processor. Also it is only about 1% fee, 3 times cheaper than square.)). It’s not all that difficult, you plug it into the network or get wireless, and directions very easy and fast. On the Square POS we enter payment as Other then enter EBT so we can track for taxes. Yes not easy or convient, but really not all that troublesome either. Also Merchant Services are extremely helpful to get you started. You just call them and they walk you through it and you do a sample charge on your own credit card to test. And technically you can use them for all your credit card and EBT services if want and save 2% which can add up to hundreds of $$ per month on a small store. 

[amysrawhoney]

Just adding to the list here. Would be great for square to process EBT. 

[jbbjbb]

I'll add to the list, recently started with Square because of TotilPay enablement and supply chain issues on traditional pin pad terminals which blew up prior solution.  So we're primarily driven by EBT.  TotilPay will be interesting but expensive, and integration is decent, and already I'm looking at Cardknox which has an online EBT payment option.  Anyone have any experience there?