PayPal Australia has launched the next generation of PayPal Here, an app and bluetooth device combination that enables Australian business signed up to PayPal Here to take transactions from Chip & PIN enabled credit and debit cards, wherever their business might take them.
The new PayPal Here Chip & PIN card reader wireless connects to any Android or iOS devices through the Bluetooth technology in (basically) all mobile and tablet devices. The reader has been specifically designed for Australia, where chip and PIN has been widely adopted and will soon be mandated across ATMs, cards, and payments terminals.
Andrew Rechtman, senior director of SMB, retail and strategy at PayPal Australia said:
Today’s shopfront is increasingly mobile with consumers embracing this trend and no longer expecting to have to travel to a shop for everyday goods and services. This is why we’ve developed the new PayPal Here – to give businesses the flexibility to be more mobile, without being hampered by logistical challenges that technology can easily overcome.
At PayPal our vision is to let people pay anywhere, anytime on any type of connected device. With the new PayPal Here, we’re able to provide a mobile payments solution to suit the needs of any Australian small business, by empowering them with more opportunities to connect conveniently with consumers, no matter how they want to pay.”
PayPal Here Chip and PIN is fully encrypted to help protect card information (which is quite important this day and age) and the service is backed by PayPal’s world class security, risk, and fraud management systems, ensuring that businesses can take multiple forms of payments safely and securely.
Businesses can register their interest to receive the PayPal Here device at www.paypal.com.au/here, with the device to be generally available later in 2014. No official date has yet been set, but it would be worth registering your interest today if only to find out more.
I don’t know if anyone here can help me – but I have a Samsung GT-19100T and I’ve just bought a paypal reader. When I do a bluetooth scan it doesn’t fin the device… help!
You need to sign up for the free Paypal Here Service, call them if you need assistance, the device requires a special app that is linked to your Paypal Here service
The PayPal Here set up is great for authors on the go like me who want to sell their books as and when they can.
The UK has a company called bounce pad that sells special rotating devices for your iPad and cradles for Te pin and chip reader.
Do you know of any Australian companies that sells the cradle please?
i actually think this is pretty amazing,
im suddenly thinking about alll the food vans and outdoor sellers that frequent my area that only ever accept cash, in an environment where hardly anyone actually carries alot of cash around anymore..
A cheapish device like this (article fails to mention they will only be $139) which acts as a basic Point of sale service will help alot of small businesses.
The only question is whether those businesses will want to wear PayPal’s overheads. Getting an EFTPOS machine will be significantly cheaper than this unit from PayPal, usually with no up front cost at all, a merchant service fee of less than 2%, and probably a mobile terminal as well, all for about $14.50 a month fixed rate. For my mind, I’d rather use that than carry around the unit from PayPal. People know and trust mobile eftpos terminals.
PayPal Here has been available in Australia for awhile but this is the first time the chip reader device will be available later in 2014. Given Australia has such a huge adoption rate of chip/pin (as opposed to signatures which is predominant in the US), it makes perfect sense to launch this service here first; what better way to test it out?
This Chip + PIN reader was actually launched last year in the UK 🙂
https://www.paypal.co.uk/blog/paypal-here–paypal-s-new-chip-and-pin-solution-now-available/
What?! A worldwide service that is released in Australia first?!
May be they are using us as a guinea pig :p
It’s not the first time that eBay has decided to use Australia as its PayPal guinea pig, Vijay.
A few years back, an earlier attempt of theirs to use us as their guinea pigs was when they were trying to treat the Law with contempt by making PayPal mandatory and the sole permitted payment method.
This Chip + PIN reader was actually launched last year in the UK 🙂
Heck, even the Apple Store stocks them – http://store.apple.com/uk/product/HC064ZM/A/paypal-here-mobile-chip-and-pin-card-reader
I did notice when I was in the normal PayPal app that it was showing businesses close to my location that accepted PayPal and I thought that was pretty cool.
I read somewhere that the card reader is free in the US for this system. We do we have to pay?
Yeah, $139.