Amazon Local Register now available, aimes to compete with PayPal and Square with lower rates

Amazon is making its own entry into purchases and transactions with Amazon Local Register, which it hopes will take on services like PayPal and Square with a  few competitive advantages. Since the company has a strong online ecosystem with a great hold on online payments, it makes sense that it would try expanding into the real world.

Users have three easy steps in order to get started with Amazon Local Register:

1. Sign up for the new service on the official Amazon Local Register website
2. Download the official app from Google Play, Apple App Store or Amazon Appstore.
   
3. Purchase the secure card reader

Once you have completed these steps you will be ready to start swiping or manually accepting credit and debit cards for your transactions. Your income can be automatically deposited to your bank account the next day or used on Amazon.com immediately.

Local Register is starting with better fees than both of its competitors. If you sign up before October 31, 2014, you'll be able to benefit from a reduced 1.75% rate on swiped transactions through December 31, 2015, after which the rate will go back to 2.5%. Compared to Square's 2.75% and Paypal Here's 2.7%, you may be saving a lot if you expect to deal with high transaction volumes. The competitive pricing also applies to manually keyed card payments.

Local Register also comes with Amazon's live support should you need it. All in all, it seems like a viable and cheaper alternative to the current established services.

The Amazon Local Register app is available across Android, iOS and Fire OS. It will accept Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover credit and debit cards on your mobile device or tablet. The app makes it easy to process your transactions and allows users to customize their programmable register to fit their business needs with categories, images, product variations and more.

You can download the app directly on your device through its respective App Stores or through the following links:

	Android	iOS	Windows Phone
Download
Price	Free	Free	Free
Requirements	Android 4.0.3 or greater	iOS 7.0 or greater	Fire OS

Amazon Local Register has the following features:

• Take credit and debit card payments
• Record cash transactions
• Customize your register with saved product images and prices
• Give customers printed or e-mail receipts
• Customize tax, tips, and signature settings
• Easily issue full and partial refunds or resend receipts
• Password-protect sensitive account information and sales reports
• No monthly fee or fees for processing chargebacks

The one limitation to keep in mind is that the app is only compatible with a handful of Android phones and tablets:

• Samsung Galaxy S3
• Samsung Galaxy S4
• Samsung Galaxy S5
• Kindle Fire HD and HDX 7''
• Kindle Fire HD and HDX 8.9''

Oddly absent from that list is the Amazon Fire Phone and any other Android flagship or mid-range device you may own.