Paying via phone

AS the world moves inexorably towards a cashless society, with Sweden apparently leading the way, a small Swedish company looks set to capitalise on a combination of bank’s high charges, consumer wish to pay by debit card wherever possible and fear that contactless payment cards are easily broken into.

Jacob de Geer was amazed when his wife who sells imported sunglasses returned from a trade fair and was angry because companies there would not accept debit cards by way of payment for advance orders as they didn’t want to go through the hassle of setting up a deal with a bank and the attendant costs.

The entrepreneur who had some experience of starting and selling small companies researched the market and came to the conclusion that there were literally millions of small companies within Europe which would love to take debit cards and set about founding a company to make it easy and inexpensive.

With some investment money and working with a friend Magnus Nilsson, he set up iZettle which for a low outlay (in the region of £35 or €40) supplies a card reader which can be linked to smart phones or tablets thus allowing debit and credit cards to be accepted.