Chase Payment Solutions and Square consistently rank in the top five when it comes to popular card processors. Let’s take a closer look at how the two compare, so you can decide which is better-suited for your business.
Formerly Chase Merchant Services, Chase Payment Solutions offers simple and reliable card processing services for your business. Whether you need to accept payments in your store, online, or on-the-go, Chase Payment Solutions has a solution.
Square is another simple card processor that provides payment, software and hardware tools so you can accept payments everywhere you sell. From swiping cards on your phone to building a custom solution on its payment platform, or even selling online, Square has you covered.
Read our comparison review of Chase Payment Solutions vs. Fattmerchant here.
| Chase Payment Solutions | Square | |
| Type of Provider | Direct processor | Aggregator |
| Type of Processing Fees | Tiered or interchange-plus | Interchange-plus |
| Contract & ETF | Month-to-month, no ETF | Month-to-month, no ETF |
Direct Processor vs. Aggregator
Chase Payment Solutions is a full-service direct processor while Square is an aggregator. What does that mean “in English?” Good question.
Full-service direct processors will manage your merchant account and process your transactions. If any problem pops up – like account freezes or chargebacks – you’ll only have to call one company, instead of two.
Aggregators, on the other hand, will process payments without requiring you to have your own merchant account. Instead, they pool a group of merchants together, and you and your fellow merchants will process payments using a joint merchant account.
Below are the pros and cons of direct processors and aggregators:
| Direct Processor | Aggregator | |
| Getting Started | (-) Lengthy process | (+) Quick and simple process |
| Service Disruptions | (+) Few interruptions. Merchants will be notified of unusual behavior, but your account won’t be frozen or terminated. | (-) There’s a higher risk for fraud, so there are higher levels of caution when it comes to suspicious activity or irregular transaction behavior. Expect more account freezes, holds and/or sudden terminations. |
| Processing Fees | (+) Able to tailor rates to each individual business, offering more competitive pricing. | (-) Typically have fixed rates, which may become pricey for large-volume merchants. |
| Processing Limits | (+) Higher | (-) Lower |
For established or growing merchants with high transaction volumes, a direct processor is more ideal. For businesses that process lower volumes, are seasonal merchants or start-up companies, an aggregator is the better payment partner.
Other Factors To Consider
As mentioned in the previous section, direct processors are able to tailor rates from business to business. The numbers below are pulled directly from the Chase Payment Solutions website. If you’re a large-volume merchant, you’ll be able to get pricing discounts that are much more attractive. Unfortunately, Square’s processing fees are set in stone.
| Chase Payment Solutions | Square | |
| Swiped Debit Transaction | 2.6% discount rate and 10¢ per tap, dip or swiped transaction, and 3.5% discount rate and $0.10 per keyed transaction | 2.75% per transaction |
| Swiped Credit Card Transactions | 2.6% discount rate and 10¢ per tap, dip or swiped transaction, and 3.5% discount rate and $0.10 per keyed transaction | 2.75% per transaction |
| Online/eCommerce | 2.9% + 25¢ per transaction | 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction |
Chase Payment Solutions offers a better deal if your business completes varying types of transactions, especially at medium – high volumes. But if you’re a low-volume merchant who only offers swiped transactions, Square might be more attractive.
More and more providers are doing away with long-term ones carrying early termination fees (ETFs) and offering month-to-month contracts with no ETF instead. That’s the case with both Chase Payment Solutions and Square.
If you want to test a new provider, or found one that can meet your business’s changing needs, you won’t get penalized for making the switch.
When it comes to customer satisfaction, Chase Payment Solutions wins, hands down. As of this write-up, you can see that Square had 1,200+ complaints closed in the last 12 months. That’s an incredible amount of dissatisfied customers compared to the 30+ (in the last 12 months) listed on the Chase Payment Solutions BBB page.
Why the discrepancy? It goes back to what we covered in the beginning: direct processors versus aggregators. With direct processors, you’ll get fairly smooth credit card processing. With aggregators, you can expect to get service disruptions from time to time.
Also, due to the nature of Square’s agreements with its processors, the company cannot disclose why it terminates accounts in specific detail. Furthermore – if your account termination is final – Square will withhold your funds for up to six months to cover any chargebacks.
Bottom Line
Chase Payment Solutions is an excellent choice for medium to large businesses that need a card processor which can handle large transaction volumes. You’ll be able to negotiate better pricing for your needs, and you won’t have to worry too much about service disruptions.
This payment solutions product from Chase also integrates well with their Business Checking accounts. Chase Business Banking customers qualify for next-day funding. In addition, there’s typically a nice sign-up cash bonus for new Chase Business Checking accounts.
Square, on the hand, makes credit card payments accessible to the average Joe. It’s an affordable solution if you process payments every once in a while, or if you have a low volume of transactions every month.
See our list of the best merchant services providers here.
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Current (2020/02/16) Square rates are:
“2.6% + 10¢
That’s for every tapped (mobile payments), dipped (chip cards), and swiped (magstripe cards) payment.”