What Exactly Went Down
In June 2020, Square made recent changes in its rolling policy regarding the handling and processing of customer transactions. They can now hold up to 30% of the money a customer pays for as long as four months before crediting it to merchants. That’s more than a whole financial quarter’s worth of time. Even worse, Square enforces the holding period on a select number of sellers, but does not specify who or on what condition would justify the holding besides vague descriptions of “risky” transactions and the selling of “goods or services more prone to disputes.”
How Square’s Policy Change is Impacting Small Business Owners
The policy change comes as a surprise for many small business merchants. Contractors, plumbers, and even local legal firms felt significant impacts on the customer fund holdings. Enacted with little warning, Square’s move is disappointing, to say the least, and flies in the face of previous measures that the company promised to help small merchant consumers during the onslaught of the pandemic. Square claims it began the policy changes earlier last year. But with this recent change in transactional holdings, small business owners are concerned that the transactional holdings will usher more local businesses to close down their doors for good. Square claims that only 0.3% of merchants were impacted by the change, but over 2,715 individuals have already composed and signed a petition on Change.org, calling out Square’s policy change as an “unethical business practice.” The number of signatures continues to climb at the time of this writing.
Transparency in Changes, Advocacy for Small Businesses
At Platinum Payments, we are transparent with our products and services to our customers. There are no term fees attached, there are no margin increases, and we never change our policies without warning. Small business owners can rest assured that they’re getting the service they expect and deserve to keep focusing on their own customers.
There are also no term contracts with Platinum Payments, so merchants can pay for the equipment and services they need, and skip what they don’t. We also provide COVID safe transactional options and a customer support staff that’s open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Small businesses are the backbone of America, and we’re here to support them every step of the way. Don’t be square, be more well rounded.
Contact our staff today to see how we can help your business get back on your feet. We offer afree analysis service to help get you started.