GoPayment enables credit card transactions on mobile web or app

Intuit Inc has released a mobile payments service for small businesses. The GoPayment service processes credit card transactions through a mobile device, either via the mobile Web or a downloadable application. Intuit, which also produces a set of business management tools called QuickBooks, is aiming to ensure that businesses can get paid on the spot, rather than waiting for payments to arrive.

Once a business has an Intuit GoPayment merchant account, they can access the service on any web-connected mobile device. Intuit is also working to integrate the product with several partners - notably Sprint, beeweeb and VeriSign’s Messaging and Mobile Media Division.

There’s the option to sync up a bluetooth card-swiper to phones running GoPayment, for those who don’t fancy entering their card details into the phone. The service uses the same security technology as the financial services industry.

The downloadable app is available on a selection of handsets, mostly from Motorola and Blackberry. There’s a setup free of $59.95, and a monthly fee of $19.95 per month thereafter. Between 1.64 and 3.54 percent is charged per transaction.

From the release:

“With GoPayment, businesses that do work out of the office no longer need to waste time sending and chasing invoices after the job is done,” said Chuck Harris, general manager of Intuit’s Payment Solutions Division. “And by partnering with Sprint, we’re providing those small businesses that rely the most on their mobile devices a much-needed tool, especially now, to increase sales and speed up their cash flow.”

“There’s no better time for a mobile offering like GoPayment,” said Tim Donahue, vice president-business marketing, Sprint. “Partnering with Intuit, we’re offering business customers a unique mobile payment solution that is affordable, simple to use and enables them to receive immediate payment for services via our dependable Now Network, which will be critical to helping them survive and thrive in these tough economic times.”

What we think?

This was an amusingly info-mercial style release from Intuit. After wittering on about a “collective $33 billion strain” caused by backed-up payments (presumably with grainy black-and-white footage of someone looking frustrated because a payment hasn’t arrived), we got treated to a “customer review” from a carpet cleaning operation: “Now with GoPayment we don’t have to wait!”

Still, cheesy salesmanship aside, this is a decent example of how mobile finance can be made to work. Secure transactions, payment options and availability on both browsers and native apps is the way to go. But larger companies like Qualcomm are also investing heavily in mobile transactions, so there’s no guarantee of an easy ride.