Square today announced $Cashtag, a new way to make payments online or from mobile phones.
The $Cashtag service is based on Square Cash and makes it easier for people or businesses to accept online payments rather than checks. It order to work, people and businesses need to create a unique $Cashtag, which acts as an address at which they can receive payments.
Square says $Cashtag can be used to replace most types of payments. Square is charging businesses transaction fees of 1.5%, which is lower than the 2.75% it charges for its Square Register card-swiping app.
Consumers won’t be charged any fees when using $Cashtag. The $Cashtag service is mostly aimed at small businesses, but is available to anyone.
Square is competing directly with PayPal, but also with other mobile and P2P payment services, such as the one recently launched by Facebook.
