Oops, Square did it again, They raised their transaction fees

Doesn’t it suck that credit cards are a great convenience, but the fees vendors have to pay are getting out of hand?

Yep, Square did it again. In January 2026, they raised their per-transaction rate from 2.9% + 30¢ to 3.3% + 30¢, about a 14% hike.

You might be thinking: “That’s exactly why I don’t want an online store. Good old cash, email, and texts work just fine.”

The fees have been climbing

Many small farms in North Carolina run their sales through Square, and Square's fees have quietly crept up over the last two years.

• In early 2025, the flat fee on every in-person tap or swipe went from 10¢ to 15¢ — the percentage stayed at 2.6%, but that nickel is charged on every single sale, no matter how small.
• Manually keyed cards climbed from 3.5% + 15¢ to 3.75% + 15¢.
• And in January 2026, the headline online rate on Square's free plan jumped from 2.9% + 30¢ to 3.3% + 30¢ — roughly a 14% bump on the percentage.

None of these numbers look scary on their own, but they unfortunately add up over time. You may decide, for the sake of retaining a new shopper or even a loyal one, "I will allow them to only buy a few items with a credit card and just accept the loss."

Small baskets pay the biggest tax

A flat per-sale fee is invisible on a $200 restaurant tab. On a $6 bunch of carrots, it's brutal.

Take that $6 in-person sale at 2.6% + 15¢. The fee is about 31 cents — over 5% of the sale, and more than half of it is that fixed nickel-and-dime piece.

What if you could give your shoppers the convenience of online ordering without those card fees, and still make sure only the shoppers you trust, those you care amount the most to retain can use it?

It's a tough problem to solve. We believe we've got the answer.

Introducing Pay at Pickup

Now your trusted shoppers can place preorders online with no money down, and you save 100% on card-processing fees for those orders — settle up in person on pickup day, cash, check, or however you two already do it.

For any existing Tangaza farmer subscriber thinking "no thanks, I don't want this", Hakuna matata!

Pay at Pickup is disabled by default, and it doesn't affect your shoppers' checkout experience. Even though a shopper sees checkout as one smooth step, behind the scenes Tangaza settles each vendor's items separately: if you haven't enabled Pay at Pickup, or a shopper isn't approved to use it, their order items still require payment in advance.

The checkout screen makes it clear to the shopper which items need to be paid now and which can wait until pickup.

Pay at Pickup has 3 main features:

• A simple approval system. The first time someone chooses Pay at Pickup, they land in your Orders → Pay at Pickup list as a pending request. You approve, decline, or revoke — all from one place. Revoke anytime, no awkward conversation; they simply stop seeing the option.
• A store-wide limit you control. You set the maximum order value that can go through as Pay at Pickup (default $15). The system counts what a shopper's already got on the books, so nobody can stack small orders to sneak past it. Go over the limit, and checkout automatically requires payment — no surprises for you or them.
• Limits and trust levels, adjustable anytime. Once you've approved a regular, their future orders, below the store limit, default to Pay at Pickup automatically. Need to raise someone's limit, pause the feature for a week, or turn it off completely? It's a few taps, any time you, the farmer, are always in the driver's seat.

Your customer order sheet, print list, and labels all mark the Pay-at-Pickup orders and tally up what's still owed, so you can see at a glance which orders need collecting on pickup day.

Deposits and CSA payments still require an advance card payment because those are big commitments, not casual buys.

Pay at Pickup is only available on the Standard plan.

👉 To see a demo presentation of this feature visit the vendor walkthrough presentation.

This isn't for everyone, and it isn't meant to be. If you'd rather have every order paid up front, leave it switched off and nothing changes.

This feature is best suited for:

• Trusted shoppers who just don't like using credit cards. Some folks would rather not type their card number into another website. Now they don't have to. They order online and pay you face to face.
• Farmers tired of paying fees on tiny sales. For your regulars and their small weekly baskets, skipping the payment processor keeps that nickel-and-dime in your pocket.
• SNAP shoppers. Since many markets who support SNAP use swipes and snips, an online store cannot simply take EBT directly. Pay at Pickup gives those shoppers a way to reserve what they want online and settle up in person with their tokens on pickup day, so a farm store doesn't have to leave SNAP customers behind.

Pay at Pickup is built to respect farmers with guardrails and controls that keep them in the driver’s seat while adding convenience for their shoppers. Sometimes you can have your cake and eat it too. Maybe not the whole cake, but most of it. This is the compromise we are building into our software: use technology to do the heavy lifting, but never forget the human aspect of a local transaction.

If you have any comments and suggestions about this feature, contact us, or ask your question on our facebook group post