Can I just deposit money to my square card or do I have to use a bank account?

[Rachie210]

Can I just use my square card for deposits or do I have to link a bank account ? If I link my bank account can the money just go straight to my square card and not mess with the balance in my bank account ? 

[VanKalkerFarms]

If you have a Square card the money will automatically be available to the Square Card without you needing to do anything.  The Square Card is not an account where you want your money sitting for a long time or forever for a couple of reasons and I'm sure there are more.  1. it isn't FDIC insured so if something catastrophic happened to Square or their servers etc your money isn't backed by the government.  2. it makes you no money sitting in an account that makes no interest or isn't available for you to invest.  Money shouldn't be sitting somewhere doing nothing (because technically it is losing value due to inflation but that's an even bigger picture idea).  Almost all people that get rich don't get rich by a windfall but from making smart investments so their money is working for them with compound interest or the stock market. 3. the money isn't in an account that you control 100%, 

 I guess if you are keeping the balance very low (If You are spending nearly as much as you take in) it could work.  I would personally not suggest leaving it sitting in the account.

[GlassJudy]

If you have the Card, you don't need to do anything - the money is immediately available for your use.  If you wish, you can initiate a transfer to your bank account.

[Rachie210]

Ok so I will be able to use my sqaure card even though I didnt link a bank account to my square account ? I haven't started a business bank account yet so I dont have one to link and didnt know if I would still be able to use my funds without a bank account linked 

[GlassJudy]

This was asked and answered in another thread.  The answer is that you do need to have a bank account linked to your Square account.  But I'm a little confused: before you could start processing charged sales, or before you could order a card, you had to have a linked bank account.  Don't you still have a bank account linked to your Square account?

[Rachie210]

No i never linked a bank account. It let me order a card and a card reader. I got the reader in the mail yeterday and its said try out your reader with a test payment so i plugged it in and used my business visa card that i got for my business direct deposite (not a bank card, basically a per paid card) and did a $3.00 payment. It says i have 2 dollars and change available but when i go to where it says deposit it says i have to link a bank account to select deposit settings 

[GlassJudy]

Apparently you do need to link a bank account.  You shouldn't have been able to order the Card without a linked bank account, from everything I've seen from Square.  Have you received and activated your Card yet?

[Rachie210]

Yes i recieved the card and activated it, also recived my card reader 

[GlassJudy]

Then you should be able to use the Card, since you don't need to do anything to load your available funds to it - they are automatically available for use.  So try to use the Card for a small purchase and if it works, you're good to go.  If it's declined, you'll probably need to get a bank account linked.  But I'd re-read @VanKalkerFarms post above about having a bank account linked.  He gives good advice about why you shouldn't use the Card only, leaving your available balance in your Square account.

[Helen · Accepted solution]

@Rachie210 @GlassJudy @VanKalkerFarms Quick update - you can activate your Square Card without linking a bank account. (But as mentioned here you might consider linking one anyway.)

I'm sorry for confusion! Linking a bank account was a requirement when the Square Card was first made available this year, but we're still the process of updating our Support/Community content.

Thanks for flagging this!