thread Re: A Change to our Tap, Dip, and Swipe Rate in Payments Troubleshooting

A Change to our Tap, Dip, and Swipe Rate

Caty — Sat, 20 Sep 2025 20:52:17 GMT

Hi Seller Community,

Caty here, writing with an important update on Square’s standard card present processing rate (e.g.: swipe/ dip/ tap transactions.)

This morning we began notifying existing sellers that we’ve changed the standard 2.75% processing rate for tapped, dipped, and swiped transactions to 2.6% + 10¢ per card present transaction. For existing sellers — which many of you are — this change will come into effect on November 1, 2019.

This rate change does not affect the existing processing rate for card not present (manually keyed-in-payments), Card on File/ Virtual Terminal payments, payments taken with Square Register or Square Terminal, payments taken with Square for Retail or Square for Restaurants, or any customers under an existing custom pricing agreement. Additionally, all sellers will still enjoy the following benefits:

One rate for all major cards
No startup fees, statement fees, refund fees, PCI-compliance fees, chargeback fees, or business card fees
End-to-end encrypted payments
24/7 fraud prevention
Payment dispute management
Fast deposits, and real-time access to your funds with Square Card

Why are we making this change?

Since our inception we’ve been committed to building accessible, easy to use tools designed to help sellers of all sizes start and grow their businesses. Like any company, we regularly review the market forces and revisit our decisions to ensure we’re best positioned going forward.

The payments landscape has changed significantly since we were first founded, and the flat 2.75% rate simply doesn’t cover all the costs that it used to. Square pays a combination of fixed and variable fees to both banks and card networks on each payment we process. Adding the 10¢ fee helps offset these costs, and is also what enabled us to reduce the variable rate to 2.6% per card-present transaction.

How might this impact you?

As mentioned, this rate change impacts anyone who is currently using our standard, 2.75% processing rate when accepting card present transactions through Square Point of Sale. No other rates are changing, including those currently using custom pricing, or paying 2.6% + 10¢ for card present transactions (e.g.: Square Register or Square Terminal.)

If you’re using the standard 2.75%, our team has worked hard to build a detailed calculator that estimates the differences in fees you might pay based on last year’s card present payment history. Keep in mind, this tool uses historical sales data to estimate what your fees might look like under the new, card-present processing rate. Your actual fees may vary depending on a variety of factors, including: ticket size, number of transactions processed, seasonality, and any growth your business may experience in the future.

Please log into Dashboard to check it out, and don’t forget to read our Pricing FAQ as well.

Final Thoughts

For some sellers, this change will be welcomed. For others, we know it will take more getting used to. We worked diligently to ensure we were able to make the best decision possible for all involved. If you choose to comment on this thread to express your feedback, please keep our Community Guidelines in mind.

On behalf of all of us at Square, we deeply and sincerely appreciate the opportunity to help you run your business, and we look forward to working with you to grow into the future.

With gratitude,

Caty

Global Head of Scalable Customer Success

Square

Re: A Change to our Tap, Dip, and Swipe Rate

HeatherSweetD — Tue, 24 Sep 2019 14:51:12 GMT

This hurts my business.

Re: A Change to our Tap, Dip, and Swipe Rate

mat — Tue, 24 Sep 2019 14:52:20 GMT

Thanks. Nothing like starting the day with a 40+% fee increase.

Re: A Change to our Tap, Dip, and Swipe Rate

mat — Tue, 24 Sep 2019 14:56:29 GMT

how is one supposed to get used to paying you guys 40% more money?

Re: A Change to our Tap, Dip, and Swipe Rate

Baheston — Tue, 24 Sep 2019 15:00:19 GMT

This is almost a 50% increase for someone like us with small ticket charges. This type of increase is indicative of a company with some issues.

This will force companies like us to search out alternatives.

Maybe tiered pricing model could be more acceptable?

Re: A Change to our Tap, Dip, and Swipe Rate

Frank828 — Tue, 24 Sep 2019 15:30:07 GMT

The email says we'll be paying nearly 300 a month extra.

That's crazy.

Re: A Change to our Tap, Dip, and Swipe Rate

mattramZ — Tue, 24 Sep 2019 15:52:10 GMT

Will be leaving Square. When we had Shop Keep, we had a 5 cent swipe rate plus percentage. We switched to Square because the swipe rate was smaller on coffee purchases (we're a coffee shop like thousands of Square's customers). We pay a lot more per month for Square's marketing, loyalty and gift cards already, but it was worth it for the swipe rates. Square will hold on to customers for a while who are locked in with some hardware, but it won't take long to see the customer base flatline and decline. This is a massive increase in a short amount of time. Terrible.

Re: A Change to our Tap, Dip, and Swipe Rate

kristylam59 — Tue, 24 Sep 2019 17:21:43 GMT

This is terrible!! i have been using square for many years, paying hundreds of dollars of fees every month! now you expect me to pay 40% more? Shame on your corporate greed to squeeze small business owners like that, you lose a loyal customer! time to look for other alternative!

Just now i have a quick search on google, i already found out Clover has lower fees at 2.3% + 10cents per transaction!

Re: A Change to our Tap, Dip, and Swipe Rate

BRkbay — Tue, 24 Sep 2019 16:50:53 GMT

What do we get for the additional $3,000 a year you will charge us? It is preposterous to think your community will pay these additional fees without searching alternatives. I could see an increase if we were getting something tangible but as it is stated this is to just line your corporate pockets. Very Shameful!

Re: A Change to our Tap, Dip, and Swipe Rate

Helen — Tue, 24 Sep 2019 17:42:29 GMT

@BRkbay I'm very sorry that this caught you off guard. I've sent you a private message so we can take a closer look at how this change affects you. Please look for a notification from the profile section (top right of your screen).

Re: A Change to our Tap, Dip, and Swipe Rate

Lee70 — Tue, 24 Sep 2019 19:03:04 GMT

So I started with Square 8 years ago. They now raise the employee fee from 5 a person to 35, now this fee increase. Looks like I will be searching elsewhere, they don’t want small business anymore.

Re: A Change to our Tap, Dip, and Swipe Rate

Helen — Tue, 24 Sep 2019 19:46:40 GMT

We'd be very sorry to see you go @mattramZ, but I appreciate where you're coming from. I've just sent you a private message so we can see how this impacts your business.

Re: A Change to our Tap, Dip, and Swipe Rate

mhugil — Tue, 24 Sep 2019 19:59:45 GMT

So let's see if I have this correct from your website. Because my men in the field take customer credit cards via their phones (androids) you will still be giving us the 2.75% + 15 cents.. The only way to get this new 2.6 + 10c is to use a register or terminal which is crazy for our business. (contractor) So instead of helping a small company, we are being squeezed yet again. And it states on this page that if I manually put the customer's card myself on my phone with square app in the office you are charging me 3.5% + 15c. How nice of you. 50% is done this way because the customer can't always be at the site so they give us their card and I do this on my android in the office.

This fit our business model when we moved to square 13 + years ago from the bank. It no longer does. If I stay with you I have to increase my prices and screw my people to afford you.

Re: A Change to our Tap, Dip, and Swipe Rate

dripespressobar — Tue, 24 Sep 2019 20:03:35 GMT

Hi Caty!

It seems your new pricing agreement really screws the small business owner! Paying an extra 40% -- about $3,000 per year to my coffee shop is a big hit. Now I get to start my search for a new company who values small business!

Not happy.

Re: A Change to our Tap, Dip, and Swipe Rate

mat — Tue, 24 Sep 2019 20:17:29 GMT

@Caty @Helen Are you doing anything to make up for the almost $4,000 extra a year you plan on charging me? You raised the employee management to a flat fee which completely screws over the people that only had a few users (I had 1 which means the rate went up 7x). We already pay a premium for gift cards because you refer to allow non-Square cards. What’s the benefits to staying with Square anymore?

Re: A Change to our Tap, Dip, and Swipe Rate

Helen — Tue, 24 Sep 2019 21:10:46 GMT

@mhugil I'm sorry for any confusion. I've sent you a private message to answer all of your questions.

@mat I'm very sorry for this experience. I'm also sending you a private message with more information about the free alternative to Team Management, called Team Permissions, which I hope you find helpful.

Re: A Change to our Tap, Dip, and Swipe Rate

Frank828 — Tue, 24 Sep 2019 21:21:09 GMT

Your new pricing is forcing us as well to find a lower priced alternative for our coffee shop.

We've been satisfied with several of your services for years, but a sudden huge price increase is forcing our hand.

Really quite disappointed after we've sung your praises to so many business oweners over the years.

Re: A Change to our Tap, Dip, and Swipe Rate

tyler — Tue, 24 Sep 2019 21:39:46 GMT

+1 for having to wake up to this terrible news. It will be a over 30% increase for us. That’s robbery. We were gonna buy a second square stand, but thanks goodness we hold off on that. Time to look for another provider. Thanks a lot Square.

Re: A Change to our Tap, Dip, and Swipe Rate

joshuamoffit — Tue, 24 Sep 2019 21:55:51 GMT

Your new transaction fees will drive a lot of small businesses away from using Square. We are a coffee shop that deals mostly with small transactions and as a result your new fees will significantly increase are expenses per year. We will likely be looking elsewhere for our POS device.

Re: A Change to our Tap, Dip, and Swipe Rate

joshuamoffit — Tue, 24 Sep 2019 22:05:49 GMT

There is certainly no additional benefit that small businesses will be receiving for their additional $2-4,000 / year they'll be paying. Terrible business decision on the part of Square. We'll be looking for another POS and I'll be selling my Square Stock - no future for this company.