Square Cash: Finally a [free] way to digitally pay people directly

I haven’t written a check for a monthly bill in years. Either the bill is automatically deducted from my checking account, charged to a credit card or paid manually via my bank’s bill pay service.

But none of this means that I’ve stopped writing checks. No, unfortunately I still have to write checks for kid-related activities like soccer tournament fees and percussion and piano lessons. Not only do I hate writing these checks, but I also find it a burden to have to remember to do it. I can’t tell you how many times I showed up at my son’s first piano lesson of the month without my checkbook in hand to pay for the month’s lessons. Or the number of times I showed up at the soccer field with my checkbook but never ran into the person I was supposed to pay for an upcoming soccer tournament.

Easy to pay a business, not a person

What it all boils down to is that it is simple to digitally pay a business but not so simple to digitally pay a person. Actually, let me qualify that. It’s difficult to digitally pay a person without having to pay any fees.

Well, thanks to a suggestion from my nephew who is attending Texas A&M as a sophomore, I am now able to transfer money directly from my bank account to another person’s bank account—with no fees! The solution is using an app called Square Cash.

Free payments via Square Cash

Square Cash is extremely easy to use. You simply sign up for a free account and then enter your debit card number from your bank. This enables you to send money. The receiver of your payment has to do the same thing but I have found most people are cooperative, already have a debit card and are as happy to not have to deal with checks as I am.

Each user of Square Cash is assigned something called a $Cashtag, which is really just a unique username with a dollar sign in front of it. To send money to someone using Square Cash, you open the app, punch in the dollar amount and then type the $Cashtag you want the money sent to. That’s it! Money is transferred out of your account and into the receiver’s account.

Be careful, there can be fees if you aren’t patient

I tested this whole process out with the manager of my son’s soccer team. It worked great. The only thing she said to be careful of is that on the receiving end, Square Cash asks if you want the money deposited immediately or the next day. If you choose the immediate option, there is a fee. If you can wait until the next day, it’s still free.

Other uses for Square Cash

I don’t need a babysitter any more but I would have loved this back in our babysitter days. It was always a struggle to make sure we had enough cash on hand to pay the babysitter or to have to write her a check. If I hired a babysitter today, my first requirement would be that they set up a $Cashtag in Square Cash.

I could also see this being useful for the neighborhood kid who cuts your lawn or shovels your driveway in the winter. As long as he or she has a bank account and a debit card (something I imagine isn’t that difficult for a kid to get these days), Square Cash would work great.