Intuit has announced it will continue to offer a free card reader and no monthly fee to new customers of its two-year-old GoPayment service. The GoPayment service allows small businesses to use smartphones as point of sale terminals to accept credit and debit cards through a combination of an installed application and a small hardware attachment. 

The offer had initially been set to expire on Feb. 15, but interest has been so high it is being extended. According to the announcement, the number of customers signing up for the product has tripled since the offer began.

Things have heated up in the mobile point-of-sale business since the entry of Square last year. In the past month, Intuit, Sage Payment Solutions and VeriFone have all made major announcements regarding their competing solutions for small businesses.