Groupon Joins Growing List of Mobile Payment Providers

Mobile payments are exploding, and Groupon is getting in on the game. The daily deal company just announced GrouponPayments, which lets customers accept credit cards at low transaction costs. The service is built into the company’s smartphone app and can be combined with hardware that turns your smartphone into a card reader.

Rather than make serious money from GrouponPayments, Groupon sees the new service as a convenience for its customers and a way to strengthen the position it’s trying to build as the go-to platform for service and retail businesses.

Groupon Card Reader

Groupon is touting a lack of monthly fees and low transaction rates of 1.8% plus $0.15 per transaction for Discover, MasterCard, and Visa. With American Express, the rate is 3% plus $0.15 per transaction. The rates are guaranteed only for U.S. Groupon merchants, though.

One of the card reader options is sounds pretty interesting. It’s a smartphone case, adding sturdiness that regular card reader attachments. It reportedly goes for about $100 to Groupon merchants. A standard swiper comes with the program.