Bank of America is the latest company to launch a card reader that enables small businesses to process card payments by fitting a dongle onto a smartphone or tablet.

The bank will launch its Mobile Pay on Demand service on December 3, pitting it against market leader Square as well as a range of rivals, some of whom are from the traditional payment processing market, and others who are trying to break in. They include PayPal, Verifone, Intuit and Groupon among a slew of other competitors.

The service is a chance for the bank to target small businesses not yet accepting credit cards but it is also a defensive move against losing customers to the likes of Square. Existing customers, including larger retailers, could use BofA’s new service as a queue-busting tactic for their staff. Or it could act as a back-up in the case its conventional point-of-sale system crashed.

BofA’s product appears fairly standard although it is aggressively priced: The actual card reader is free as is the accompanying app which needs to be downloaded. And the service carries no subscription fee. Merchants are charged 2.7 percent of the value of transactions swiped through the device. This compares to Square’s 2.75 percent charge, itself a competitive rate.

The bank says its advantages include its well-known brand. Plus it has numerous branches which can act as distribution points for the new product. The service also offers next-day access to funds for merchants and the availability of service representatives on the phone.