It looks like Intuit’s GoPayment is taking the gloves off. According to Fortune Magazine’s Michal Lev-Ram, Intuit began offering a freemium version of its mobile credit card service beginning last week. The two-year-old GoPayment service offers small businesses the ability to accept credit card payments on cell phones using a downloaded app and a small credit card reader. 

Until the middle of February, Intuit will waive monthly fees and provide the credit card reader at no charge. Discount rates for new clients accepting the plan, however, will be 2.7 percent instead of the 1.7 percent charged before the freemium offer.

The announcement of GoPayment’s freemium offer comes on the heels of Square’s announcement early last week of $27.5 million in new funding. The timing may not be an accident. The two services offer almost identical value propositions to small businesses, but Square has been receiving a great deal of positive press lately due largely to its founder Jack Dorsey, the co-founder of Twitter.