How to take Venmo and cards at an honor stand

Most honor stands start the same way. A table, a cooler, a handwritten price list and a jar. Then a neighbor says "I never carry cash," and you tape a Venmo code to the table. Then somebody asks if you take cards.

Before long the table has three signs on it, and none of them know about each other.

We run a bake stand ourselves, and about half of our customers pay by Venmo, a quarter by card and a quarter with cash. So here is what we have learned about taking all three without turning the stand into a checkout counter.

Start with what your customers already carry

People walking up to an unstaffed stand want to grab something and go. Every extra step is a chance they shrug and leave. That means the best payment option is the one already on their phone or in their pocket.

• **Cash** still matters. Plenty of people keep a few bills for exactly this. Keep a locked box and whole-dollar prices so nobody needs change.
• **Venmo** is the one most neighbors already have, especially for small amounts. It is also one of the cheapest digital options for a stand.
• **Cards** catch everybody else, including visitors who do not use Venmo at all.

You do not need all three on day one. But each one you add is a group of customers you stop losing.

What each option really costs

Fees matter more than they look when your average sale is twelve dollars, because the flat part of the fee does most of the damage.

• **Cash:** free, apart from the box and the trust.
• **Venmo business profile:** 1.9% plus 10 cents per payment. On a $12 sale that is about 33 cents. Venmo asks sellers to use a business profile rather than a personal one, and setting one up is free.
• **Square, online checkout on the free plan:** 3.3% plus 30 cents as of 2026. On a $12 sale that is about 70 cents.

That is why we lean on Venmo first and keep cards as the backup. Same muffin, roughly half the fee.

The problem with a code for every app

The simplest way to take Venmo is to print your Venmo QR code and tape it up. It works. But it has two catches that show up after a few weeks.

**It only takes Venmo.** A card customer scans it and hits a dead end. So you add a second code for cards, and now customers have to work out which code is which.

**It does not know what sold.** A Venmo payment shows a dollar amount and a name. It does not say "two loaves and a jar of jam." If you want to know what to bake more of next weekend, you are left guessing from totals.

One sign that does both

What we wanted for our own stand was one code that opens a little menu. The customer taps what they are taking, sees the total, and picks how to pay: Venmo or card. Venmo opens with the amount already filled in. Cards go through a normal checkout. Cash customers just use the jar.

That is what we built GoodStand to do. Some details, since honesty is the whole point of a stand:

• **Venmo** goes straight to your own Venmo business profile. All you give us is your username. Venmo's usual fee still applies, and we never take a cut.
• **Cards** run through your own Square account, which is free to open. Square charges its usual card fee, and again, we take nothing on top.
• **What sold** is recorded every time a customer taps their items, whichever way they pay. If you want your Venmo money matched up against those orders, you can upload your Venmo statement and we will estimate which payment goes with which order. We call it an estimate because Venmo does not tell anyone exactly, and we would rather say so.
• **The price** is $6 a month, or $59 for the year, and the first 30 days are free. We take a card to start the trial and do not charge it until the 30 days are up.

A quick setup checklist

Whatever you use, this is the order we would do it in:

• Set up a **Venmo business profile** and note your username.
• Decide whether you want **cards** yet. If you do, open a free Square account.
• Put **whole-dollar prices** on everything. It helps cash customers and makes every total easy to check.
• Make **one sign** with one code and clear words: "Scan to see today's menu and pay."
• Keep a **locked cash box** for everyone else.
• Check your local rules for selling food from home. They vary a lot from state to state, and they are your responsibility, not your customers'.

If you want to see what your own sign and menu would look like, you can [start a stand on GoodStand](https://goodstand.us/signup?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=venmo-and-cards) and the preview shows up as soon as you type your stand's name.

Kristopher – Founder and fellow stand owner