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Flint Mobile Payment Service and App

In case Square Up and Paypal Here were not enough options for you, now comes Flint, yet another mobile credit card payment system for the iPhone.

The difference with this one is that instead of getting a card reader, you use your iPhone’s camera to take a “picture” of the credit card. Then the app will get the credit card number off the card and show it on the screen for verification. The customer must also give you their billing zip code and can also add on a tip to the total.

It’s easy to sign up and you don’t need a merchant account. Their fee structure is:

  • 1.95% + $0.20 per debit card transaction
  • 2.95% + $0.20 per credit card transaction
  • Same fees apply for typed-in transactions
  • No minimum commitment.

Flint’s 20 cent per fee might not work for people charging for micro transactions, and the 2.95% (instead of Paypal’s 2.7%) could start to add up after a while. But if you’re going to be typing in the card number a lot, 2.95% is a lot better than paypal’s 3.5%.

In this very crowded mobile payment sector, I’m not sure charging more than the competition is the way to go when you are the new kid on the block. We’ll have to see how long this company lasts.

Take a look at their commercial video: