New Android Based Mobile Payment Processing

Heartland Payment Systems has launched Mobuyle (pronounced MO-buy-uhl), a mobile solution developed to enable merchants to accept credit, debit and gift card payments through their smartphones or mobile devices.

According to the Princeton, N.J.-based vendor, Mobuyle is designed for brick and mortar businesses looking for off-premise processing capabilities or on-site flexibility, including the ability to easily add extra point-of-sale (POS) payment terminals to dispel long checkout lines or “line-busting.” The solution enables merchants to accept all major credit and debit cards, including corporate cards and Heartland Gift Marketing’s loyalty and gift cards, via secure card swipe or manual entry. It features electronic signature capture, GPS location capture, merchandise picture storage, and voice authorization capabilities, and enables merchants to accept card payments even if they are out of range for cellular coverage or WiFi access with Store and Forward (SAF) functionality.

“Many providers are taking a one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to mobile processing, which doesn’t serve business owners with the optimal technology solution for their businesses and ends up costing merchants substantially more in processing fees,” said Steve Elefant, Heartland’s CIO. “With Mobuyle, merchants benefit from robust business applications and can drastically reduce their mobile processing costs.”

Merchants using Mobuyle pay rates similar to those for traditional card processing, which is much more cost-effective than paying a higher, flat fee for all transactions like some other providers charge, said Heartland. In accordance with The Merchant Bill of Rights and its advocacy for the clear, straightforward presentation of processing costs, Heartland follows an interchange plus pricing model which passes card brand fees directly through to the merchant and charges processing fees separately, making it easier for merchants to see what they are paying and to whom.

Merchants download the Mobuyle application free of charge at the Android Market and purchase the Mobuyle Encrypting Reader, which plugs into their phone’s audio jack, directly from Heartland. When the payment card is swiped, all sensitive information is encrypted with Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) — the most secure encryption available — before it leaves the reader, protecting data in transit and never storing cardholder data on the device. Mobuyle also adds another layer of security by using unique encryption keys to protect data with Derived Unique Key Per Transaction (DUKPT) key management. Additionally, all communications from the phone to the POS gateway are secured using 128-bit Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption. After the transaction is complete, merchants can email receipts to their customers. They can also access comprehensive processing reports on their smartphones or mobile devices or through the Heartland Merchant Center.

Mobuyle’s first application is designed for retail environments and currently serves Android smartphones. Heartland will begin releasing applications for other smartphones and mobile devices, including the iPhone, the iPad and iPod Touch later this year.