VeriFone’s payment service for the iPhone is designed for small businesses such as cafes, door-to-door sales and home repair services. The hardware and software service will begin shipping Jan. 15 and is available for free after signing up to the Payware Mobile secure gateway service agreement.

“We saw lot of activity going on with various vendors that typically haven’t provided payment applications,” said Pete Bartolik, a VeriFone spokesman, Atlanta. “Essentially, overnight there was a cottage industry development of software companies who have never developed payment applications and are not skilled in the security standards required or the certifications that payment processors require.

“So we wanted to bring this into the mainstream and put out a secure and simply payment system for the iPhone with a very attractive pricing model – free hardware and software with a service agreement,” he said.

VeriFone is a worldwide provider of electronic payment services.

Payments go mobile
Payware Mobile includes a PA-DSS approved payment application and a card reader that slips over the iPhone to accommodate card swipes and allow merchants to avoid card-not-present fees.

The service also includes VeriFone’s VeriShield Protect end-to-end encryption product as a standard feature.

The iPhone payment services will be available through existing bank acquirer and ISO channels, as well as direct from VeriFone.

VeriFone said that it also plans to make Payware Mobile available wherever mobile phone accessories are sold.

The Payware Mobile card reader uses a magnetic stripe read-head and firmware certified to the Federal Information Processing Standard FIPS 140-2.

Card details are immediately encrypted during the card-swipe process. No sensitive data ever reaches the payment application.

Mr. Bartolik said that from VeriFone’s perspective, this is an opportunity to address a market of potentially millions of smaller merchants who do not typically acquire card-processing systems, either due to price or because the form factor has not suited them.

“For merchants, it provides an assured, secure card-acceptance system,” Mr. Bartolik said. “There are several payment applications that have been announced for iPhone, as well as other devices, that nobody has a clue whether or not they adhere to industry requirements and protect cardholder data.

“All merchants who accept credit card payments well know that in doing so they increase the frequency and size of their transactions,” he said.

“Many smaller businesses, such as home services and delivery have not yet had the opportunity to conduct business in this manner with their customers.”