Can I swipe a tap enabled card?

[NTS]

The title of this thread has been edited from the original: Swipe tap enabled card

Are you able to swipe a credit card on the stand that is tap enabled?, or can you only tap ? Also the contactless reader has an insert slot. When would you use this?

[Helen · Accepted solution]

I'm happy to clarify @NTS!

You can accept Interac Flash debit cards by using the tap function of the contactless reader or the Square Terminal for payments up to $100. To accept a payment over $100 you'll be prompted to insert the debit card to the reader/Terminal.

You can insert a chip credit card to the contactless and chip card reader. If the credit card doesn't have a chip you can swipe the credit card on the Square Stand.

This Support Centre article has information about the card brands you can accept with Square. If you have any other questions about this reply here to let me know.

[ronhamelin]

This is really a pain! I lost a sale because someone couldn't use their debit card and the tap didn't work. I tried inserting it and it was rejected. I tried tapping again. Nothing. And then again. Nothing. It doesn't even respond to the tap. USELESS! 

My client went home and said he'll interac the money to me by email. Fingers crossed he actually does since I already provided the service. NOT HAPPY AT ALL!

[Chad]

Sorry to hear about the trouble @ronhamelin, we are working on bringing debit chip and PIN transactions to our Canadian Sellers. We will make an announcement once this feature becomes available! 

[ronhamelin]

good to know! Does that mean Ill be able to swipe instead of tap a debit interac?

[Chad]

@ronhamelin I'll check on this for you. My hunch says no, mainly because the banking industry is moving away from magstripe all together, but I'll look into this and share what I can. 

[ronhamelin]

ok then, so in the meantime, how do we process Interac when it just doesn't work? I've seen plenty of other posts in these forums about the tap not working. I've since changed my website to say we only accept CCs, no longer Interac, sadly, since Quebecers use Interac all the time. 

[Chad]

@ronhamelin If you're having trouble processing a tap payment I recommend trying some of the steps in our article Contactless + Chip Reader Troubleshooting. Usually these troubleshooting steps resolve most issues when it comes to processing a tap payment, if you're still experiencing trouble I would recommend reaching out to our Customer Success Team and they can take a closer look at your reader. 

Since we only offer Interac processing via tap, your customer would have to use a different card or another payment method to complete the transaction. 

If you have any other questions please feel free to reach out to me! 

[GoodDog]

Enabling Canadian customers to use the chip and/or mag strip with Interac cards will happen sooner than later I hope. Have experienced a loss of payment and a loss of sales from card holders who did not have the tap enabled on their Interac cards. 😞

[Tom]

Hey @GoodDog, I'm really sorry to hear this.😕 We definitely do not want any of our customers to miss out on a sale. I can't access and share out a specific timeline for when we'll be able to expand payment options, but we are tracking this request. I'll be sure surface your experience with our Point of Sale team. We'll announce any developments as they become available.

[Vbarber]

I have lost sales because tap was the only debit card option. This post is from May. It’s 5 months later and still no update? It makes no sense to me that Square will accept the LESS SAFE option of tap, as opposed to insert/PIN. 

[Helen]

@Vbarber I'm really sorry to hear you've lost sales as a result. Our Payments team is working on this, we certainly want you to be able to accept other types of debit cards.

Also keep in mind that contactless payments (also called 'Near Field Communication' or NFC), including Interac debit tap are secure. When a customer pays by Interac tap their bank details are tokenized and encrypted to complete the payment, meaning that information can't be accessed. This blog post has details about security and NFCmobile payments in Canada and I hope it helps.

I will share your post with the Payments team and if we have any news we'll share it with you here in this thread.