Small business owners looking to take mobile card payments can now order a free chip and PIN reader from Intuit and get started today.

The company believes that its simple system, which connects via bluetooth via the iOS app, will help them target the UKs 4.6m microbusinesses with fewer than 10 employees where less than 20 per cent accept card payments.

A provider of financial services to small businesses, Intuit already has 100,000 users of its QuickBook book-keeping service. The Intuit Pay solution enables users to take payments over the phone on PC and from next month will support its users to automatically update their Intuit business accounts. The app is coming to Android soon but the chip and PIN reader is only available for free for a limited time. 

The company charges 2.75 per cent per transaction and does not have a monthly payment plan or sign-up fee at this stage, but this may be in the pipeline. Intuit Pay is supported by Global Payments to quickly enable activation within minutes after a credit check.