Square Register Payments FAQs

• Contactless, chip and PIN and magstripe card transactions processed on Square Register have a 1.75% fee per transaction.

• Manually keyed-in, processed using Card on File, processed using Virtual Terminal, or processed using Invoices have a 2.5% fee per transaction.

• Clearpay in-person transactions are 6% + 30 cents per sale.

• There are no fees for recording cash, check, or gift certificate payments.

• There are no monthly or hidden fees for credit card processing. All fees are deducted before funds are transferred to your linked bank account.

• Processing fees are deducted before each transfer and cannot be charged on a monthly basis. You can view your total fees on a monthly basis from your online Square Dashboard.

Learn more about
fees with Square.

When you tap the blue Charge button on Square Register, LED lights indicate on the customer display where to tap, dip or swipe cards. The customer display is ready to take payments when the lights are illuminated.

Contactless payments describe the act of paying without touching anything.
NFC (near-field communications) is a technology that allows for contactless payments. Using radio frequency, NFC allows devices (like smartphones) to wirelessly communicate at close range to do things like process payments. Apple Pay and Google Pay are both forms of NFC and types of contactless payments.

When you are ready to take a card payment, tap the blue Charge button on Register. The contactless logo on the customer display will light up after tapping Charge. Ask your customer to hold a contactless device or card near the contactless logo to trigger a contactless payment.

Yes, they’re just as secure as accepting chip cards. In some cases because of additional verification methods (like Touch ID with Apple Pay), contactless payments can be even more secure. Learn more in the Square comprehensive guide to Apple Pay.

Chip + PIN card payments require additional security steps to transfer and verify chip data. It can take around 3-5 seconds to complete a chip card transaction when it’s inserted into the customer display’s EMV card slot.

Unfortunately, you need to insert chip cards into the card slot. You can only swipe magstripe cards or faulty chip cards. The Swipe Chip Cards option is not currently available for Square Register.

Yes. In addition to Apple Pay and Google Pay, acceptable contactless payments include contactless cards and Samsung Pay.

Yes, the chip card needs to stay inserted in the customer display EMV card slot until the transaction is complete. The customer will get a confirmation message when it’s time to remove the card.

Yes. If your business is using Square Loyalty and your customer is enrolled in your Loyalty program, they can redeem any earned rewards during checkout. Once your customer dips, taps, or swipes their payment card, any rewards that can be redeemed will be shown to the customer on the buyer-facing display. As soon as rewards are chosen and redeemed by the customer, you can continue through the checkout process as normal.

Note: The customer must be paying with the payment card that is linked to their Loyalty profile in order for available rewards to automatically appear on the buyer-facing display. Read more about linked payment cards and how customers can redeem their rewards.

There are two ways to connect Square Register to your network: Wi-Fi and Ethernet. You can connect to Wi-Fi by going to ≡ More > Settings > Hardware > Network on Square Register. You can also connect with an Ethernet cable through the Ethernet port on the USB hub. Once connected to a network, you will see a confirmation that your connection is successful. You can also check your network connection in the Wi-Fi/Ethernet network status indicator in the status bar.

If you are unable to connect to Wi-Fi or Ethernet, you can enable Offline Mode to accept card payments for a limited time. Offline Mode will store your customers’ payment information for 24 hours until you can reconnect to a network.

Learn more about Offline Mode.

On Square Register, you can accept payments via the Square Point of Sale, Square for Retail or Square for Restaurants app on Square Terminal and Square Register.

Customers can tap (only with Apple Pay and Google Pay), insert or swipe payment cards, while in Offline Mode. Clearpay transactions and Square gift cards will not work with Offline Mode.

Learn more about Offline Mode.