thread invalid location in Payments Troubleshooting

invalid location

xoortes — Sun, 21 Sep 2025 13:08:43 GMT

Good morning community, I'm using square reader in my business in the UK years ago now. I'm transporting cars within the country and last week my client asked me to take a car from the UK to Hungary. The end client tried to pay for the transport with card this morning and this is the error message what we received on the screen.

invalid location

What is the solution for this message? Did I have to change something in the settings? Please help if you can. Thanks,

Re: invalid location

tranguyen — Mon, 13 Sep 2021 11:42:17 GMT

Welcome to the Seller Community @xoortes!

This error message usually comes up when a payment is being attempted when the device is being used outside of the activation country. Was the payment being attempted in Hungary by any chance? If so, it'd be the expected error.

When accepting card payments with Square, you need to be located within the country where you activated your Square account. For example, if you activated your account in the United Kingdom, you can only accept card transactions in the United Kingdom. Any card transactions attempted while travelling or residing internationally can’t be processed with the reader.

While you can't accept card payments with Square while travelling abroad, you can still process internationally-issued cards. You just need to be located within the activation country when processing these payments, and cardholders may be charged for currency conversion by their card issuer since payments must be processed in British Pounds.

I hope this help to clarify the issue.

Re: invalid location

tonydow — Mon, 13 Sep 2021 14:56:48 GMT

@tranguyen Would you be able to use a Virtual Terminal with manual card entry in this situation?

Re: invalid location

xoortes — Mon, 13 Sep 2021 15:21:55 GMT

@tonydow yes it is works. That was the solution how I did accept a card payment in a foreign contry. The 2.5% commission was a pain. 😞

Re: invalid location

tonydow — Mon, 13 Sep 2021 16:21:30 GMT

So pleased it worked for you. There would have been the same commission with the Reader anyway.

Re: invalid location

capitalshop — Fri, 11 Nov 2022 17:54:54 GMT

I'm trying to get card payments in another city, not country but still it says invalid location

Re: invalid location

Emma_ — Mon, 14 Nov 2022 14:53:34 GMT

Hi @capitalshop, I'm sorry to hear you're running into this. What city are you trying to accept card payments from?

Re: invalid location

capitalshopltd — Mon, 14 Nov 2022 14:55:02 GMT

Hi Emma I'm trying to accept it on the Leicestershire

Re: invalid location

Emma_ — Mon, 14 Nov 2022 15:39:11 GMT

Thanks for confirming @capitalshopltd, If you opened your account in the UK and have been able to take card payments with the same Square Reader or Square Terminal, you should be able to use it in another city in the UK. If it's a new hardware that you use for the first time, it may have been activated elsewhere. In this case, you will need to return it and get another one depending on where you purchased.

If you receive this message with the same hardware you've been using previously, please check your email address to make sure you are connected to your account with the correct email address. If the email address is correct, please run through the troubleshooting steps outlined for Square Reader here or Square Terminal here.

Please let me know how it goes.