Payments sector disruptor Square has announced that it’s not just dealing in the realms of taking payments. Now it wants to open up the market of making payments too. And CEO Jack Dorsey has revealed this week that they’re launching a debit card feature for users, powered by Visa. It will draw on your Square balance and account and not your bank account.
Starting today anyone can get a #cashcard! Design your own: https://t.co/K2DfyJgs6y pic.twitter.com/n5AwX92DBw
— jack (@jack) June 29, 2017
It looks rather neat. You can take advantage of personalisation features, design your own card and it’s all very much like the pre-paid debit cards we’re all familiar with. Sadly Dorsey’s big claim that “anyone” can have one isn’t entirely accurate.
He selectively forgets that some Homo Sapiens on planet Earth live beyond the borders of the USA. That said, it’s a decent development and, hopefully, it will soon become a service available to us all. Even we Europeans. He acknowledges that he wants to go global. On Twitter, when someone called out the fact it was actually available to anyone but only to those in the US he replied: “Yeah for now.”
It remains the case that a significant number of people remain what they call “unbanked”. It’s true in the UK and also doubtless true Stateside. That means they don’t have a bank account or access to basic financial products such as debit cards. New companies such as Square are in a position to remedy that. And if the cards look pretty too, so much the better.
