If you’ve ever split a bill at a restaurant that just gave you one check, or you’ve tried to pay someone back, you know how much of a pain dealing with cash or check is. Rarely do you happen to have the correct amount and going to the ATM is just an extra step you shouldn’t have to make.
The Square Cash App
Square Cash allows you to send money - for free - to people you know via your iPhone.
The app links directly with your debit card, allowing you to send or request money to/from anyone via email or text message. If another user has the app, it will indicate when they are “Nearby,” so you can send/request money with just a tap.
Payments are deposited into your bank account in minutes; no more waiting to cash checks. It works with any US Visa or Mastercard debit card (but not prepaid cards). Square Cash is secure too, with 128-bit encryption, as well as a requirement for either the card’s CVV (the three little numbers on the back) or TouchID to send money.
How To Use Square Cash
Here’s how easy it is:
- Open the Square Cash app
- Type a $ amount and tap “Send” or “Request” at the bottom
- Type a name, phone number, or email. Recent & nearby Cash users are shown for convenience.
- (Optional) Fill in the “For” section to indicate what the payment is for. “Dinner” or “Rent” or “Allowance,” for example.
- Tap “Send”
That’s all there is too it! Square Cash gives you $1 just for signing up. If you refer people, both the referrer and the new user get $5 as soon as they make their first transfer!
All of this may sound too good to be true. You may be wondering, how does Square make money from this app?
The answer is, they don’t.
Square’s goal is to get devoted users, who will hopefully subscribe/pay for other services in the future. By offering this service for free, they’re able to gain a larger market share of the mobile payments industry, which is beneficial for them in the long run. Square makes most of their revenue from the small business market with Square Readers, which we carry here at CityMac.
Square has recently partnered with Snapchat to bring “Snapcash,” a feature built in to Snapchat which enables users to send money directly to their friends within the Snapchat app.
Download Square Cash for FREE!
If you are interested in mobile payments but want to try out a few other apps, there are several alternatives to Square Cash. Dwolla, Venmo and Paypal are a few other popular ones, but Square has the best app we’ve seen thus far.