It’s going to be much more difficult to avoid paying back people for those unpaid bar tabs pretty soon.
That’s because Square, the company that introduced the world to the concept of credit card payments from smartphones and tablets, released its latest program – Square Cash – on Monday.
Square Cash differs from its credit card-swiping predecessor in that it allows users to transfer money through email. Unlike similar programs such as Paypal and PopMoney, one doesn’t have to be logged into Square to wire the funds. All an individual has to do is draft and send an email with [email protected] copied to the correspondence and the dollar amount in the subject line. The recipient is then invited to link a debit card to Square to receive the funds.
There are two small catches, however: Each transaction will cost the sender 50 cents. The sender currently also has to be an employee at Pinterest, Twitter or Box.com to test out the program.
The company is not saying much about additional details or the release date of Square cash to the public, but has released the following statement: “We’re excited to share Square Cash with our friends. We’ll continue to invite others to try it out in the coming weeks.”
Square Cash’s arrival comes just a few days after Google announced that Gmail users can send funds through Google Wallet as an attachment to their emails. Those transactions will cost the user either 2.9 percent or 30 cents, and must come from a debit or credit card.
It’s also unclear whether the sender or recipient (or both) must have preexisting Square accounts in order to use the service.
