Detroit panhandler claims to be first to accept credit card donations with cellphone card reader: 'being homeless is my business'(VIDEO)
Detroit panhandler claims to be first to accept credit card donations with cellphone card reader: 'being homeless is my business'
Detroit panhandler claims to be first to accept credit card donations with cellphone card reader: 'being homeless is my business'
BY LAURA BULT NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
No change? No problem. This panhandler takes all major credit cards.
A high-tech Detroit homeless man named Abe “Honest Abe” Hagenston claims to be the first person on the streets outfitted with a card reader on his cellphone for donations.
“I’m the only homeless guy in America who can take a credit card. It’s all done safely and securely through square.com,” Abe told CBS Detroit.
“I take VISA, MasterCard, American Express,” he said.
Hagenston, 42, who goes by the nickname “Honest Abe,” has been homeless for seven years in Detroit and has adopted digital tools to solicit odd job opportunities and street donations.
He says he brings in about $20 to $50 a day from the generosity of strangers who drive by the highway overpass where he sleeps and give him a tip in change or with the swipe of a card using the Square reader.
Hagenston claims to be the first panhandler to use a Square credit card reader on his cellphone to accept donations.
Square readers cost around $10, plug into the headphone socket of iPhones and Androids, and charge users 2.75% per swiped transaction through a free app.
It's unclear how many people have entrusted "Honest Abe" with their credit card information.
The innovative street dweller also started a website he created using a computer at a local public library.
“My business is being homeless, now homeless is my business,” reads Hagenston’s slogan on his website.
Hagenston tries to earn extra money by working odd jobs, but he said he hasn’t been able to shovel snow, a usual source of income for him in the winter, because of the mild weather in Detroit.
Hagenston, 42, set up his own website using computers at a local library with the slogan "being homeless is my business."
“It’s not really that easy, what we’re lacking is snow,” Hagenston lamented to CBS Detroit.
His website boasts that Hagenston also does “a lot of painting, computer work and yard work for people.”
The site also solicits job opportunities for other homeless people in Detroit and an option for the homeless to sign up for job postings.
Hagenston hopes that his Internet presence will improve his situation and those of his fellow homeless in Detroit.
“Being homeless gives a person a lot of time to reflect on what went wrong, and what a person could do differently if given the chance," he wrote on his website.
lbult@nydailynews.com
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/detroit-homeless-man-accepts-credit-card-donations-article-1.2513569
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