The Best Options For A Free Credit Card Reader In 2023

The venerable Square Magstripe Reader is, improbably, still available for free when you sign up for a Square account. It's available with either a headphone jack or a Lightning port to connect to your smart device and doesn't need charging. While it doesn't accept EMV cards, it's still useful for accepting the occasional magstripe-only card or as a backup to your EMV-compatible card reader.

You should, however, be aware that you'll be on the hook for any fraudulent transactions if you process an EMV-enabled card using the magstripe.

Square Free Credit Reader

Square is an excellent choice for credit card processing if you're running a small, low-volume business. There are no monthly fees or long-term contracts, and you can sign up for an account online without going through the extensive underwriting process required to get a full-service merchant account. In-person transactions cost a flat 2.6% + $0.10 each, making it easy to predict your processing costs.

Be aware that Square isn't available to most high-risk businesses and can actually be more expensive than a traditional merchant account if you have a high monthly processing volume.

If you're going to use Square as your primary method for accepting credit and debit cards, we highly recommend that you upgrade to the Square Reader for contactless and chip, which adds EMV and NFC-based (contactless) capability and Bluetooth connectivity. It costs only $49 each and includes a Square magstripe reader to use as a backup.

The Clover Go reader is best for merchants looking to accept it all — contactless, chip cards, and magstripe (as a last resort). This Bluetooth reader has a great battery life with an optional countertop dock, and with a merchant account through National Processing, the Clover Go could cost you nothing.

The price of the Clover Go Bluetooth reader depends on where you buy it — several processors use Clover as their line of hardware options. However, we have negotiated a deal with National Processing for our readers to get a free Clover Go device. If you want this chip card reader for free, you can get it from National Processing upon opening an account using our links on this page. Get your free reader here. Otherwise it is $49 when you buy from Clover directly.

National Processing offers transparent, interchange-plus pricing for retail at interchange + 0.18% + $0.10 per transaction. It provides month-to-month billing with no early termination fee if you need to close your account. With this traditional merchant account, you'll also get more account stability than with payment service providers (PSPs), such as Square and PayPal.

Note that National Processing offers a wide variety of plans tailored to specific industries and business types. Not all of these plans come with a free Clover Go card reader (some include a SwipeSimple reader instead). Monthly fees range from $9.95/month to $199/month, with additional charges for optional features, such as ACH processing.

The Clover Go's rechargeable battery is good for approximately 160 swipe or chip card transactions.

National Processing is one of the few providers in the processing industry that specifically caters to the needs of small business owners. Products and services include robust support for low-cost mobile processing systems, as well as more traditional credit card terminals. The company offers both the Clover Go and SwipeSimple B250 mobile card readers, both of which are profiled elsewhere in this article.

While National Processing offers a "free" terminal if you sign up for a merchant account, we recommend passing on this offer and purchasing your equipment outright. By doing so, you'll avoid the need for a long-term contract (with a $295 early termination fee) and enjoy true month-to-month billing with no long-term commitment. The company's "free" equipment offer makes more sense if you need a traditional countertop terminal or POS system, which costs hundreds of dollars or more.

In any event, National Processing is much more lenient about enforcing its early termination penalty than most providers. Unless you're leaving the company and signing up with a competitor, you probably won't have to pay the ETF as long as you return your equipment promptly.

Although it's best known as an eCommerce platform, Shopify also supports retail merchants with a variety of terminals and mobile card readers. At just $29, the company's proprietary Shopify Chip & Swipe Reader is the ideal product for a small business looking to get a fully-featured mobile card reader for the lowest possible price (short of free, that is).

As the name implies, the Chip & Swipe Reader accepts both EMV and magstripe payment methods and connects to your smart device via Bluetooth. However, it doesn't accept NFC-based (contactless) payments. It's also one of the very few mobile card readers that comes with a charging dock included at no extra cost. Unfortunately, it's currently listed as out of stock on the Shopify website.

Shopify has also recently introduced a proprietary Shopify Tap & Chip Reader, which supports contactless payments but drops the magstripe reader. It's also listed as sold out, although we believe it will be back in stock sometime soon.

At the moment, your only choice for a mobile card reader that is in stock is the popular BBPOS Chipper 2x BT ($49 each). It's an excellent choice, assuming that you don't have your heart set on a Shopify-branded product.

As for credit card processing, Shopify uses a very simple, flat-rate pricing plan. In-person transactions will cost you 2.7% each, while manually keyed-in sales will process at 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction. There's also a monthly fee to use the Shopify platform itself, with the Shopify Lite plan being the most affordable at just $9/month. There are no long-term contracts or early termination fees of any kind.

UK-based SumUp is a relatively new entrant to the US payments processing scene, but it has a lot to offer small retail businesses.

If you just want to accept credit cards on your smartphone or tablet, the SumUp Plus mobile card reader will set you back just $19 ($39 when bundled with a charging dock. For just $59, the SumUp Pro works without the need to connect to a mobile device. Both readers support magstripe, EMV, and contactless NFC payments (including Apple Pay and Google Pay). The SumUp Plus uses Bluetooth to connect to your smart device of choice.

Like Square and PayPal, SumUp is a payment service provider (PSP), so the chances of having your account suddenly frozen or terminated are higher than they are with a fully-underwritten merchant account. Pricing is fully disclosed and uses a flat-rate pricing model. All retail transactions cost 2.75% each, and billing is pay-as-you-go, with no recurring monthly fees or long-term contracts.

Overall, SumUp is an excellent choice for a small, retail-only business that wants to be able to accept credit and debit cards for the least amount of money. One word of caution: SumUp doesn't offer a payment gateway or support for eCommerce, so it's not suitable for businesses with an online sales channel.

The Zettle Reader 2 is now PayPal Zettle's primary choice for a mobile card reader to use in conjunction with your PayPal credit card processing account. It's modern, easy to use, and as close to "free" as you can hope for with such a sleek, multifunctional device.

The Zettle 2 Reader uses the PayPal Zettle: Point of Sale app (available for iOS and Android) to accept payments and manage your account. It operates using a built-in rechargeable battery that can last for up to eight hours (or 100 transactions) on a charge. You can recharge the reader using an included USB cable or an optional charging dock. With Bluetooth connectivity, you won't have to worry about having the right connector on your phone or tablet.

The PayPal Zettle app has most of the basic features you'll need day-to-day, including support for manually keyed-in transactions, logging cash payments, Venmo transactions, and QR code payments. It supports EMV and NFC-based payment methods (including Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay) but doesn't accept magstripe payments.

All in-person credit and debit card transactions process at a flat rate of 2.29% + $0.09 per transaction. While the Zettle 2 Reader isn't free, it's a very affordable $29 for your first unit. Additional readers are $79 each, and the optional charging dock is $49. There are no monthly fees, and all billing is on a pay-as-you-go basis, with no long-term contracts or early termination penalties.