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

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

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

1 Verified Answer
Verified Answer

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

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.”
105 Comments
Beta Member

Hi-

 

Do you use both Square and the EBT machine? I'm just getting going with the EBT reader. How do you tender the sale in Square to show it was EBT? Just trying to make sure our drawer is clean and not sloppy with saying its cash or card when its not. Thanks!

Beta Member

Do you currently use both? How do you tender the sales in Square? We are a stand so using Square as the register but am now going to start accepting EBT (waiting on the machine). How do we keep it all organized? Thanks!

I use a stand alone EBT processor (I use GoEBT.com - it is a flat charge per month for the lease of the machine and fees incurred so I know every month what my fees will be). Then when I ring out the customer on the square stand I select "Other Tender" and type in EBT. That way it is separate from Cash and cards and it states that it is EBT.

We have a seperate machine that we use to process the EBT cards (Clover), but we still run everything throught the Square machine to keep our inventory straight. We cash it out as "Other" and type "EBT" in the note section. Kind of a pain, it would be nice if Square would start processing EBT cards as well.

We do the same.

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.”

This answer is from 2 years ago.  Is there any hope for EBT in the Square POS or do we look elsewhere?

 

We are just a small retain health store but many customers ask if we can do EBT... I haven't seen any truly workable solutions without more cost and extra work.

 

 

Admin

Hey @morageek, welcome to the seller community and thanks for checking in here. I went to look for any changes, but there aren't any developments that I can share out at this time.

 

We are continuing to track the request for the ability to accept EBT payments—we'll definitely update this thread as soon as more options become available. Really sorry for the extra work this is causing in the meantime. Please keep in touch.

We are our county's Farmers Market and we would love to have one point processing for credit and debit and EBT cards.

We are looking at switching from our current provider to Square for credit/debit (if it does both) but it would be a HUGE

advantage if we could also take the EBT cards (which function just like regular cards or possible like gift cards.

Admin

@suzc Thank you for your post and for your interest in switching to Square! 

 

I don't have a timeline for when you might be able to accept EBT cards with Square and I'll share your request with the Payments team. In the meantime, to review the cards you can accept with Square you can revivew this Support Center article: Accepted Cards.