Intuit has agreed a deal to sell its GoPayment mobile credit card processing technology in Verizon Wireless's 2300 retail stores and business-to-business sales channels.
GoPayment consists of am app and physical card reader than plugs into the audio jack of Apple, Android and Blackberry devices, enabling merchants to accept payments through their phones and tablets.
The deal with Verizon is a major boost for Intuit, which competes with Square, the much-hyped brainchild of Twitter founder Jack Dorsey that is already valued at over $1 billion following a recent $100 million funding round, and established POS vendor Verifone.
Visitors to Verizon's 2300 stores and Web site can get the GoPayment reader free with activation of an account and a mail-in rebate for the $29.97 purchase price.
The app is free and the basic service has no monthly, transaction or cancellation fees, with users paying a 2.7% rate for transactions, compared to Square's 2.75%. A paid version is also available for $12.95 a month and provides a low discount rate of 1.7% for swiped transactions.
Customers who purchase a smartphone for their GoPayment use will need to subscribe to a Verizon Wireless Nationwide Talk plan beginning at $39.99 for monthly access.
Chris Hylen, general manager, payments solutions, Intuit, says: "GoPayment is meeting a huge need and is one of the fastest growing mobile payment solutions in the market. With Verizon Wireless, we'll help even more people discover that they too can process credit card payments on the phones or tablets they already own."