Plug and Pay: A Gallery of 26 Mobile Card Readers
Dongles, dongles everywhere. Since the launch of Square’s lozenge-shaped credit card reader in 2010, dongles to process credit card transactions have proliferated with ecstatic abandon. Many are free. Some are odd-looking. Most are black.
We’ve corralled a wide sampling of them here for your viewing pleasure. Have we missed a few? Quite likely! There’s always room for more (presumably).
Take a break from the August grind and stroll through our menagerie of dongles.
First up is the iconic Square reader. And a category was born.
Also available in black at Target, just $9.99.
Chase Mobile Checkout from Chase Paymentech is a new entrant to the field aimed more at larger mobile sellers rather than micro merchants.
IDTech’s UniMag mobile magstripe reader comes with clips to fit a variety of mobile devices.
Roampay G4X mobile card reader. An alternate version exists for EMV cards rather than magstripe.
ProPay Jak. ProPay was acquired by TSYS in 2012.
PayPal Here. PayPal is the leader in mobile payments volume and its triangular dongle works in the US and several Asian countries.
If you live in Canada, you may have paid for maple syrup or gravy fries with Vancouver-based Payfirma.
PayAnywhere is a retail play, available at Amazon, Walmart, Home Depot, OfficeMax and more.
This dongle is sadly unidentified. If you would like to claim it, please contact Bank Innovation at 1-800-DONGLE.
mPowa‘s handsome dongle hails from London and turns your mobile into a “sell phone.” We’re told it has a nice accent, too.
Mophie, a maker of battery cases and other add-ons, put out its card reader with input from Intuit. It is currently “out of stock.”
Moblized PhoneSwipe is an ISO/MSP of HSBC Bank.
MagTek iDynamo is a substantial reader with a focus on security.
Swedish company iZettle is big in Europe — literally big. Look at that thing.
Intuit GoPayment has a distinctive cylindrical shape.
An older version of Intuit GoPayment. Note the cylinder below the Intuit logo, which will grow in the newer version.
Fiserv’s SpotPay can be whitelabelled for individual FIs.
EverPay from Puerto Rico’s EverTec is the Square of Latin America.
The Breadcrumb card reader from Groupon is part of a complete POS package called Breadbox.
Bank of America launched Mobile Pay in late 2012. The reader has its own holder and fits on a keychain — bonus!
BluePay, based in the Bay Area, is a registered ISO (Independent Selling Organization) of Wells Fargo.
The AppNinjas card reader is a serious piece of hardware that, uniquely, stands on end when not in use.
POS kingpin VeriFone entered the mobile card reader market with SAIL, now defunct.
Capital One bought SAIL and rebranded it as Spark Pay, while keeping the swooping sail shape on the back of the dongle.
Swipely is a Rhode Island-based startup banking on better analytics for merchants
