Understanding Square processing fees.
During these times it’s even more important that we’re fully transparent in how our payment processing fees are distributed. When a customer spends money with your business, Square only keeps a fraction of the fees, approximately one third, and that goes back into tools and features for your business.
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Square’s fees by payment type
Card-present payments
When a customer pays via chip and PIN or contactless payments with their card in person, you pay 1.75% + VAT per transaction. There is a lower risk of fraudulent activity when the cardholder is present.
Card-not-present payments
There are multiple types of card-not-present payments. Square pays more for these transactions and the fee increase goes directly to the card issuing bank to help mitigate the risk of fraud and protect your business.
When a customer makes a purchase through your Square Online Store, Square Online Checkout, eCommerce API, the fee is 1.4% + 25c + VAT for EU & EEA cards or 2.9% + 25c + VAT for UK/non-EEA cards.*
When you manually key in your customer’s card details on your Square POS app, the fee is 2% + VAT. If you use a card on file or take payments via Virtual Terminal or Invoices, the fee is 2.5% + VAT.
*1.4% + 15c + VAT for EU & EEA cards or 2.9% + 15c + VAT for UK/non-EEA cards for Premium plans with a monthly fee of €60+VAT.
How Square's processing fees work
Here’s a breakdown, using a blended rate, of where the money goes every time you make a sale.
Data in the figure is an illustrative example using the Ireland card present processing rate and a blended cost across Australia, Japan, Canada, the United States and Ireland.
Card processing fees explained
To process a sale, there are several types of set fees within a transaction. These are set not by Square but by cardholder banks and card networks. They are included as part of Square’s card processing fee.
Interchange Fee
Every time a customer uses a credit or debit card in your shop, a fee is charged by the cardholder’s bank. This fee can vary greatly, based on the issuer of the card, the card brand and the country in which it was issued. When Square processes a transaction on your behalf, Square is required to give a percentage of the funds collected to your customer’s card issuer.
Assessment Fee
Associations such as Mastercard or Visa also collect fees, called dues and assessments, for the use of their card brands as well as the ability to process transactions through their payment networks. Square is required to give a percentage of the amount collected from your customer to these associations.
Risk and PCI compliance
PCI DSS is a security standard all businesses that accept cards must comply with to safely and securely accept, store, process and transmit cardholder data during debit and credit card transactions. Square complies with PCI standards so you don’t have to validate your compliance, nor do you pay associated annual fees.
Square tools and features
With Square, you benefit from many resources designed to help you grow your business.
Point of sale and eCommerce Solutions
Download the free Square POS app or launch an online shop so you can sell right away without any up-front investment.
Fraud Prevention
Fraud can happen in both low-risk transactions and higher-risk transactions such as card-not-present purchases. We work around the clock to evaluate the legitimacy of your buyers to protect your business.
Dispute management
Get free dispute management services for chargebacks. We cover the fee for every dispute that we fight on your behalf. And we’ve saved sellers millions of dollars globally by managing and winning disputes for them.
Advanced reporting tools
Access important data and powerful tools straight from your Square Dashboard so you can easily keep track of your sales and make important decisions about your business.
Square support
Our general in-house phone support is available from 09:00 to 17:00, Monday to Friday, with email access anytime, 24/7. For Terminal and Square for Restaurants sellers, phone support is available 24/7.
Team management
Track team hours, overtime and breaks. Free timecards that sync seamlessly to Square Point of Sale make payroll simple.
We advocate on your behalf.
Merchants in Ireland pay millions every year in interchange fees for electronic payments. A large portion of these fees contribute to product features and enhancements that the card issuer puts back into their portfolio.
At Square, we have an entire team that works on sellers’ behalf to negotiate with banks and card networks to keep rates as low as possible for our sellers.