Money Watch – Personal Finance Blog

iZettle, the mini chip-card reader and app turns an iPhone or iPad into a credit card terminal, today announces the launch of its invite only beta programme with MasterCard, American Express and Diners Club in the UK.

To participate in iZettle’s beta programme simply download the app from the Apple App Store and request an invitation or sign-up via iZettle’s UK website. iZettle is looking for a wide spread of users to ensure it tests the service with all kinds of businesses and individuals using it for different purposes. It has 3000 mini chip-card readers to give away.

If you are one of the lucky users chosen to be a part of the programme you will receive an invitation by email and a free card reader will be sent to you in the post.

“I know what it is like to start your own business – you need all the help you can get and iZettle is one of those small but important elements that can define the difference between failure and success,” said Charles Dunstone, The Carphone Warehouse founder and iZettle investor. “Taking payments is becoming increasingly difficult with people carrying less and less cash in their wallets. With iZettle – problem solved – you can focus on growing your business.”

iZettle lets anyone take credit or debit card payments anytime, anywhere.  It’s simple to set up and use, and makes it easy to share purchases with Facebook friends.

Unlike costly traditional point of sale card readers, with iZettle there is no set up fee, or monthly fee or minimum. Instead, iZettle owners pay only a percent of the sale. iZettle then electronically deposits the balance of each payment in the seller’s bank account.

iZettle is EMV (Europay, MasterCard and Visa) approved, and compliant with PCI-DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard). No sensitive data is ever stored on the mobile device or iZettle reader, and all data traffic is encrypted.

Jacob de Geer, Founder and CEO at iZettle comments: “The U.K. is a priority market for us and we are very excited about kick-starting this beta programme with three of the major card networks; MasterCard, American Express and Diners Club.”

Marion King, President of MasterCard UK & Ireland, said: “MasterCard is working with partners across the industry to drive the development of smart, simple and safe payments and make our vision of a world beyond cash into a reality. We’ve been supporting iZettle since its inception in Sweden and believe the pilot in the U.K. is another important step towards enabling commerce, by offering cardholders and micro-merchants the choice to make and receive payments in an innovative new way.”

Jacob de Geer continues: “We’ve had a great response from our users in the Nordics market and are looking forward to getting feedback from small businesses and individuals in the UK who have previously been limited to cash, cheques or invoice as payment methods.”

“I am delighted to announce the signing of iZettle,” said Werner Decker, Senior Vice President, American Express Merchant Services Europe.   “Small businesses in the U.K. can by using iZettle, in a simple and secure way, now offer their customers greater payment choice.  In addition, our Card members can now use their American Express Cards to pay for products and services from merchants who earlier didn’t have a solution to accept cards.”

With more than 50,000 users today, iZettle has increased the number of point of sale (POS) card acceptance terminals in the Nordic by 10 percent since it began operation in Sweden last September and expanded to Denmark, Finland and Norway in February this year.

Today, there are 20 million small businesses in Europe that only accept cash or invoices, according to Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.