Square Starts Taking Orders For New Debit Card

Square, the payment company owned by Jack Dorsey, is starting to take orders for the roll-out of its first debit card.

According to a report in Recode, a Twitter user tweeted last week that an alert was sent out from the Square cash app to order the debit card, and then the plan was confirmed to Recode.

Recode noted the prepaid debit card isn’t linked to a bank account but instead to the Square Cash app, which means users can only spend the money that is residing in their Square Cash account.

With the Square Debit card, users sign the front. A Square spokesperson told Recode the signatures are screened before Square prints them on the cards to prevent inappropriate words and drawings from ending up on the debit card. Users can include their Twitter handle or just their first name, which Dorsey showed off in a tweet. The cardholder’s first and last name are printed on the back of the all-black debit card.

The move on the part of Square to launch a debit card is the payment company’s latest effort to build more features into the Square Cash app to stand out from other mobile payment services in the marketplace. In April, Recode reported Square Cash, which started out by sending money to friends and family online, has been recently including ways for people to spend the money they receive and store it in Square Cash.

The next step for Square Cash, according to the report, may just be a physical debit card, judging on a photo Dorsey tweeted. In the tweet, Dorsey showed an image of a prototype of an all-black card. Square had a similar prototype in 2014, but nothing came of it, noted the report. Square already rolled out a Square Cash virtual debit card that can be used to make purchases online, and in December, Dorsey told Recode he uses it as his default payment method.

Shortly after that, Square integrated with Apple Pay, which prompted some industry watchers to say a physical debit card seemed like a logical next move for Square. A Square spokesperson declined to comment, noted the old Recode report.