Square CBD is a program under Square Inc. You have to apply to it to be accepted because Square does not offer it to all merchants. The CBD program will allow merchants to process payments for hemp and hemp-derived CBD products with less than, or equal to, 0.3 percent THC in most states. Some examples of CBD products are oil, wax, flowers, lotions, seeds, and topicals.
The program does not allow merchants to sell marijuana and marijuana-derived products. This includes products that contain more than 0.3 percent THC. Other prohibited products are bong, paraphernalia, kratom, kava, and pipes.
Square CBD will allow the processing of payments in-store, online, and via the app. The program will keep every transaction safe and secure since it is PCI-compliant.
Square CBD offers payment processing at any scale. This means CBD businesses can accept payments in-person, online, and via phone. The merchants can enter card details manually or use the information stored in the system. Customers can also buy CBD products as they would any other items online.
Square CBD specializes in CBD and hemp products. This high-risk industry provides alternative payment options for businesses that don’t normally get approved by regular banks.
Businesses can also apply for a CBD loan. The company said it does not have stringent requirements. CBD businesses can get approved in as fast as one day. The loan amount can be as high as $250,000 and as low as $300.
Processing Fees –
The processing fee for card-present payment is 2.6 percent plus 10 cents per transaction because there is a lower risk when the cardholder is present. For card-not-present payments, the fee is 3.5 percent plus 15 cents if the merchant manually enters the card details or uses the card on file. These are just some of the processing fees involved in using Square CBD.
In a nutshell, the customers have to pay for interchange, assessment, and risk and PCI compliance fees.
For CBD processing, the fees are as follows:
Additional Fees –
The Square CBD hardware comes free for the first reader. Then, the fee is $10 for every additional device. There are also other tools merchants can avail of. These are the following:
Hidden Charges –
Square CBD says it is fully transparent and has no hidden fees.
There are formal complaints filed against Square Inc., the parent company of Square CBD, on BBB.
Many complaints posted on the BBB website called Square Inc. a rip-off because the company held their money and suspended their accounts despite having funds in them.
Square CBD itself is not listed on the Better Business Bureau’s (BBB) website. This means it is not accredited and rated by the bureau. Its parent company, Square Inc., is certified by the bureau and has an A+ rating.
However, Square Inc. has a rating of 1 out of 5 based on customer reviews. It also has 5,421 complaints closed in the past three years and 1,231 complaints closed last year.
There are many customer reviews about Square Inc. on BBB. Most of the reviews are negative. The customers asked the BBB to shut down the company. Some even called it a scam. They said that it’s hard to set up an account with Square. The customer service is apparently bad, too, because the merchants couldn’t speak to a representative. They warned other businesses from using Square.
Despite having no listing on BBB, Square CBD is a legitimate company that has appeared on several news sites, including Forbes. The financial media outlet has already reported about Square offering payment processing for CBD businesses. This only goes to show that the company is not a scam.
ScamAdviser also gave its website, squareup.com, a good trust score of 100/100. The rating means the website is safe to use. There are many positive highlights about the site, namely:
The only negative thing ScamAdviser has to say about the website is the fact that it came from a high-risk country. However, it did not specify which country, and the website did not mention its headquarters.
ScamAdviser’s trust rating already proved that Square CBD is not a scam by any means. There are no direct scam reports about Square, but a phishing scam once used the company’s name to get information from customers. However, many complaints on the BBB website called the company a scam.
In 2021, Weisslaw LLP, on behalf of Stephen Bushansky, filed a lawsuit against Square Inc. and its board of directors over its proposed acquisition of Afterpay Limited for $29 billion. There is no update yet about the case. H&R Block also sued Square after it renamed itself to Block for trademark infringement.
In 2016, Square also settled a dispute with a refuted co-founder. The company paid Robert Morley $50 million for his claims that he, alongside Jack Dorsey and James McKelvey, invented the hardware device in 2014.
Square has mainly positive reviews from tech sites and merchants. All raved about the mobile card reader’s ability to turn any mobile device into a card payment processor. With Square CBD, businesses can begin accepting card payments for cannabis products.
The company received glowing reviews from Entrepreneur, Mashable, SC Magazine, The Next Web, CardRates.com, Gigaom, PaymentsSource, and HostingAdvice.com. On Capterra, it has a 4.7/5 rating based on more than 1,600 reviews.
Some of the things that people love about Square are the fact that it provides a text receipt, that it’s easy to set up, and that it is user-friendly. The only thing they don’t like about it is the processing fees.
Square CBD is a legitimate payment processor for CBD businesses. It provides hardware and software so businesses can process all kinds of payments. Although some merchants are complaining about the processing fees, it is only natural to pay for higher fees when the business requires a big risk on the part of the payment processor. Overall, this is one of the most competitive and legitimate payment processors for CBD businesses worldwide.
