Mikey Campbell
Minutes after Apple Pay chief Jennifer Bailey offered a brief update on Apple's payments product at Re/code's Code Commerce conference, Square CEO Jack Dorsey on Tuesday announced immediate integration with Square Cash virtual cards.
Debuted onstage in San Francisco, the new Apple Pay integration allows Square Cash users to pay for items wherever Apple Pay is accepted.
The feature is enabled through Square Cash's virtual debit card system, which debuted in September through a partnership with Visa. Like a traditional debit card, Square's virtual version lets customers apply their Square Cash account balance to purchases made through online retailers.
"I've been using this as my primary card for about two months," Dorsey said, adding that he uses his card on purchases like Netflix and Blue Bottle coffee.
Square Cash started life as a free peer-to-peer payments solution, but recently moved on to retail thanks to the virtual debit card initiative. Today's Apple Pay integration brings Square Cash into brick-and-mortar shops that accept mobile payments, further legitimizing the service as a viable payments solution contender.
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8 Comments
Not sure why you'd use those over your normal debit card in apple pay. I don't know anyone that uses square cash, much less keeps a balance on it.
Yea, not sure whats up here either. Glad to see any adoption of ApplePay I guess. :smile: Apple Pay is absolutely excellent, it's especially sweet since the chip and pin system is such a slow, messy, annoying terrible disaster.
Square Cash's virtual debit card is competing with PayPal's debit card, not with traditional bank accounts linked with normal debit cards. Both of those companies are effectively unregulated banks. PayPal is widely acknowledged as being an awful company (freezing accounts for no reason and with no recourse, for example). Square is trying to take them on more directly. ApplePay support for the virtual debit card adds a capability I do not believe PayPal offers with their physical debit card.
A virtual debit card inside Apple Pay is a good solution for someone who doesn't have a relationship with a traditional bank. Those people have so far been forced to use cash (which is a good thing, as when it's gone, it's gone). However, those people can't really participate in the online side of the consumer economy. Or, if they find a way, it comes at a cost. There are some services that allow you to place cash onto a physical debit card (see Walmart, AmEx Serve), but the fees are ridiculously high.