Business and financial management solutions specialist Intuit and network operator AT&T (NYSE:T) announced a partnership to offer Intuit GoPayment for AT&T, a mobile application and credit card reader that helps small and midsize businesses process credit or debit card payments using their smartphone or tablet. GoPayment for AT&T comes with automatic signup and pre-approval for the majority of AT&T customers and is available via AT&T’s nationwide small business sales force and call centers.
The basic GoPayment service has no monthly, transaction or cancellation fees, and offers a 2.7 percent discount rate for swiped transactions. For small businesses with higher volume processing needs, a paid version of GoPayment also is available for $12.95 a month and provides a lower discount rate of 1.7 percent for swiped transactions. That plan is recommended for businesses that process more than $1,000 a month and want multiple employees to process payments using one GoPayment account. The monthly fee for the paid version of GoPayment is rolled into customers’ existing monthly AT&T bill.
Qualifying customers can purchase GoPayment for AT&T as part of AT&T’s All for Less packages, which feature wireless, wired and broadband services, Website hosting, tech support and data backup. According to the Yankee Group’s 2011 Mobile Money Forecast, the value of mobile transactions worldwide will grow from $241 billion in 2011 to more than $1 trillion by 2015, a compound annual growth rate of 56 percent.
“Intuit GoPayment for AT&T comes with automatic pre-approval for AT&T customers, helping small businesses speed up the on-boarding process and enabling them to make credit and debit card transactions within minutes,” said Ebrahim Keshavarz, AT&T vice president of small business product management. “This offer is just the first step in AT&T and Intuit working together to benefit small businesses by helping them broaden their payment capabilities, save money and, ultimately, better serve their customers.”
Features include the ability to create and sell from a list of frequently sold items, swipe credit cards using the card reader hardware instead of entering data manually and sending text or email receipts with a map of where the transaction took place. In addition, card data is never stored on the mobile device and is encrypted during processing – once via the credit card reader and a second time via the GoPayment app.
“GoPayment makes it easier for small businesses to grow their business no matter where they are,” said Chris Hylen, vice president and general manager of Intuit’s payment solutions division. “By teaming up with AT&T, we’re getting GoPayment into the hands of even more small businesses. Now they too can easily and affordably process credit cards and get paid on the spot, which in this tough economy means increased cash flow and more repeat business.”