Accept credit or debit cards without using proprietary software?
Does anyone know of a way to accept credit or debit cards (in person) without needing to install proprietary software on a device? Most of the systems that I've found so far for accepting credit or debit cards in person involve a dongle plugged into a smart phone - coupled with a proprietary app :|
I wish all customers would pay in cash or check (or bitcoin) but I feel that I might be losing business by not accepting credit cards and I'm trying to figure out what to do.
Ideas?
Sadly, it's a complicated mess especially when regulations are factored in. For one, it might be helpful if you forget about swiping cards (i.e., manually enter information... perhaps on a computer running Trisquel.) There is a list of payment processors on https://snowdrift.coop/p/snowdrift/w/en/payment-services with some notes and information.
Patrick McDermott, aka pehjota on IRC, has developed a free replacement for the proprietary JavaScript needed by Stripe: http://www.pehjota.net/projects/epirts.js/
But this is only for the payment side. It does nothing for the proprietary software that YOU as the owner would need to run when logging into the site for reporting, etc.
Plus, issues of PCI DSS compliance come up. You should REALLY be talking to pehjota about this subject. He has done much research in the area of credit card processing in the free world.