Square releases NFC & chip reader; all vendors can now accept Android Pay, Samsung Pay and more

Accepting all forms of payment is important. At this point, credit/debit cards are everywhere, and many of us use them exclusively (I don’t ever carry cash anymore). Obviously, a business which doesn’t accept card will lose my business. Now it’s time for NFC mobile payments and EMV chip cards to enter the business.

Square has been a go-to solution for vendors who can’t afford expensive credit card readers… or maybe just need more portability, and you can use Square on-the-go, wherever your smartphone is. Now they are releasing a nifty new reader that can handle both NFC and the recently adopted chip in newer payment cards, so they will be current with the times.

This is unlike the card reader we are used to seeing, though. That little dongle that connected to your 3.5 mm headset jack is still included, but seems archaic next to the newest, baddest payment system.

The Square contactless and chip reader is a little block that connects to your smartphone wirelessly (iOS or Android). Once in order it can start receiving payments. Just have the customer tap his phone with Android Pay, Samsung Pay and others (yes, Apple Pay too). Alternatively, you can grab any chip card and slide it in.

These technologies are both the future, but they are used for different reasons. NFC payments are secure, but they are more about convenience. Paying with a phone is a breeze! On the other hand, EMV chip cards tout a level of security regular stripe cards and NFC can only dream of. This chip offers multiple stages of complex processing and cryptographic authentication that is claimed to be nearly unhackable.

So, how do you sign up for it? All you can do right now is reserve it, but it will cost $49 once it hits the streets. And as mentioned above, it does come with a stripe reader, so you can continue using that little tool afterwards.