Payments startup Rhombus has launched a platform in the US that lets consumers send payments and donations to businesses on any mobile device by texting the amount owed and a description of what they want to buy to a dedicated Rhombus number.

“To send a payment to a merchant, local business or non-profit, simply text the amount and description to their Rhombus number in this format; $xx.xx Description,” the company explains. “For example; $20 2 Burritos and a soda or $50 Feed the Children outreach. You will receive a payment confirmation by text immediately after.

“You will also receive an electronic receipt by email for every payment you make. There is a 160-character limit for each individual payment you send using Rhombus; you can send a minimum payment of $5 and a maximum payment of $15,000.”

“Sending a payment with Rhombus is completely free as long as you use a bank account, a supported debit card or credit card to fund your payments,” Rhombus adds. “With Rhombus, we only charge 2.9% plus 30c per transaction to receive payments or donations; we cover the monthly cost of your assigned Rhombus number, including all the messaging fees associated with the payments you receive.

“Your Rhombus account works with all the major banks in the United States. We currently offer two-day payouts for 25c/payout. The payments you receive via Rhombus are bundled and paid out to your bank account in two business days on a rolling basis.”

Rhombus is working on adding support for other countries “soon” and has partnered with payments startup Stripe for storing a user’s payment information, CEO Edwin Elodimuor told NFC World.

“We use Stripe for storing payment information,” Elodimuor said. “So, when a user signs up and enters his payment information, we send it over to Stripe from the browser who then sends back a token. The token is saved on our end and we can send it back to Stripe for billing. No payment information touches our servers.”

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