COMMENTARY | When it comes to changing the way Internet buyers and sellers do business, PayPal is probably one of the more influential websites around. A new mobile payment device that attaches to smartphones, which is being referred to as PayPal Here, is a way for businesses that do not currently have a credit card accepting system but do have a PayPal account, as reported by the Associated Press. In small businesses across the country, this could be huge.
Of course, all that convenience does not come for free. Sellers familiar with the typical PayPal fee structure will not be surprised to learn that PayPal will be charging 2.7 percent of the amount of the transaction as a fee, as reported by Bloomberg. Of course, that could be a minute amount of money for electricians, plumbers, party stores, and even garage mechanics across the country, which no longer have to hassle with checks or other forms of payments. Plus, the report states that PayPal will give away the app and the reading device to PayPal Here customers.
Plus, Agence France-Presse reveals that merchants will even be able to take a photo of cards instead of swiping them through the readers, which will be pretty handy for those cards that just do not swipe. Of course, traditional banks are probably also licking their chops at the chance to get a few more debit card uses out of customers.
So while small businesses will have a chance to take payments in different ways, and maybe even have a chance to grab a few more customers, big banks and PayPal, which is an eBay company, also have the chance to make little more cash from the new device. While not the only mobile payment system around, PayPal is a virtual bank that many users in the United States know from their days on the huge auction site.
