Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Manufactured Spending with Debit Cards - Square Cash UPDATE

A recent Flyertalk thread clued me in on Square Cash, a new player in the webpayments game.  The thread is HERE.  Square is a reputable service, and their new offering is a fee-free way to send up to $2,500 per week to anyone.  The limiting factor is that payments can only be made with debit cards and not many debit cards award miles or points.  Suntrust's Delta debit card is a good option here at 1 Skypeso per dollar, and I plan to try it out.

This may also be a way to liquidate some prepaid debit cards.  Early reports indicate that the Paypal debit card works with Square Cash, but other prepaid gift cards are reported not to work.

However you use this service, I advise caution.  In my experience Square is quick to jump on perceived "abuse" and close down accounts.  Many folks who used Square credit card readers to cash out gift cards in the past were frustrated by account closures and Square's "fraud prevention measure" of holding balances for 30-60 days.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out. 

UPDATE:  Test transaction has posted as a "Debit Card Purchase."  Game on.

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