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About Flint Mobile Payment Services
Flint is the mobile payments company that is creating the easiest way for on-the-go businesses to accept credit cards and to find new customers through social marketing. The company’s first product is an iPhone app that enables merchants to process credit card payments easily and securely using only their phone – without any additional hardware. Founded in 2011 and headquartered in Redwood City, California, Flint is backed by top-tier venture capital firms Storm Ventures and True Ventures.
The Flint team has a track record of successful web, mobile, communications, and payments products with companies like Adobe, Amazon, Atimi, Electronic Ink, iPix, HP, Linden Labs, Netflix, Openwave, Polaris, Polaroid, Polycom, Ribbit, Silicon Graphics, Salesforce.com, Visa, and Worldpay.
All you need is the Flint Mobile app to accept credit cards – no extra hardware. Just scan the main numbers of the card and enter card verification information to ensure a secure transaction. Flint instantly sends an authorization request through their PCI compliant payment gateway partner. No card data or images are stored on the phone and your customer’s privacy is protected. You can easily customize transactions by creating a pre-set item list, adding sales tax, enabling tipping, or including a loyalty offer in the receipt.
The app includes customizable receipts that enable you to tap into online word-of-mouth referrals. From the receipt, customers can easily post reviews and recommendations about your business to both their Facebook™ page and your page (if you add it to your Flint profile). Each Flint transaction can spark new customer referrals and can help build powerful content on your Facebook page.
Your funds will be automatically deposited into your bank account five days a week. Generally, transactions will be paid out within two business days (net of transaction fees). Deposits are made directly by their top tier merchant bank partner. Note: Flint currently does not support deposits to pre-paid cards accounts.
Flint brings a new pricing model to market which benefits their users. Fees for debit card transactions are 1.95% + $0.20 per charge. Fees for credit cards are 2.95% + $0.20. Flint supports U.S. Visa and Mastercard transactions which account for nearly 90% of customer transactions. Debit cards account for the majority of local purchases in the U.S. so we thought it’d be advantageous to offer a better rate for our users.
Flint is currently available in the U.S. for iPhones™ on the Apple App Store. The first product is for the iPhone™ and is compatible with iPhone 3GS, 4, 4S, and 5. They support iOS 5.0 and higher including iOS6. Anyone in the U.S. can sign up for an account and download the application. Once you Sign up they will send you an official invitation to activate your account.
Some pro’s and con’s
Pro – No additional hardware needed, so no card swiping devices to lose or malfunction while trying to swipe a credit card.
Pro – Telephone and email support
Pro – Does not store picture or numbers of credit card.
Pro – Social Media marketing via customizable receipts
Con- Currently the services is only available for iPhone devices that have a camera. You can use it with your iPad 2 or higher and you only use it with you iPod touch that has a camera.
Con- No Android, Windows or Blackberry apps available at this time.
Con – Does not accept American Express or Discover Cards
Con – Does not allow payment by paper check.