Card Processing Applications: Selected Card Processing Apps for iPhone & Android

Owning and operating a small business is getting easier, thanks to rapid development in mobile technology. Mobile communication companies are building devices with more comprehensive yet versatile capabilities that take advantage of the growing developmental market. One of the most useful advances of late is the ability to use your phone as a means to process credit cards.

Traditionally, if you owned a business that depends on credit transactions you would either manually process the card by copying the information and calling the bank to authorize it or you would run the card through a magnetic strip reader. Obviously smart phones are not equipped with this kind of peripheral, although it is available as an accessory. However, credit card processing apps allow you to enter the credit card information, transaction amount, and other pertinent information directly on your phone's touch screen and process the transaction online!

Some small business owners swear that this has increased their sales. A big part of this is the fact that a large percentage of customers prefer to use plastic because it is secure, convenient, and can be tracked. Indeed it is difficult to find anyone who still carries a lot of cash.

Credit card processing apps aren't cheap, but they are worth the price of business. Currently they range from $50 to over $150 to initiate and charge the merchant per transaction, much like card readers that they might have in their physical store. Right now the iPhone is leading the charge, but other Smartphone models are following suit, which also means pricing is changing.