Mobile businesses can now take credit and debit card payments without having to purchase an external card reader. A phone's camera is used to record the card's information instead.

A mobile phone application that uses a phone's camera to securely scan credit card numbers instead of swiping them through an external card reader is being marketed to businesses that are highly mobile such as lawn and landscape professionals.

Flint, the creator of the app, recently announced the addition of new features that include invoicing, coupons, and Apple Passbook support, which according to Flint, makes them the first mobile payment solution provider to integrate with Apple's virtual wallet.

"With our latest upgrades, we now provide an easy-to-use payment, invoicing and loyalty solution through a single mobile app and online merchant portal without requiring extra hardware or consumer app downloads," said Flint co-founder and CEO Greg Goldfarb.

The app, now available for Apple iOS 6.0 phones or higher, is free with fees of only 1.95% per debit card transaction and 2.95% per credit card transaction. The new features allow businesses to create and send invoices to customers via email, and let customers pay online from their mobile phone, tablet or computer without waiting for a check or bank transfer. Users can also track all invoices and send overdue reminders from either the app or merchant portal.

Customized coupon offers can now be created from the app or merchant portal, emailed to customers, and applied to transactions simply by scanning with the app. Customers can add coupons to their Apple Passbook app with a click for one-stop storage instead of having to download a separate app as required by other solution providers. Consumers without Passbook can redeem coupons via a QR code in each email. The app also allows merchants to send automated reminders before a coupon expires to encourage re-engagement.

In addition to credit/debit cards, merchants can now use Flint to manage cash and check transactions
including sending custom e-receipts with no fees. Users can track all payment types in one account and
export data as needed.

Flint now can handle multi-item transactions, including automatic calculation of the total amount due and any applicable taxes. Merchants can also add custom payment amounts and apply discounts to transactions.

Invoicing is also now available for Flint's Android users through the merchant portal. The other new features will be added to Flint's Android app in the near future.

More information is available here.