What are Virtual Terminals?
With credit and debit cards quickly becoming consumer’s payment of choice, business owners are looking for more convenient methods of credit card processing. Businesses advantage from a virtual terminal in making telephone, mail, and fax orders more convenient by replacing traditional in-store hardware for credit card processing. A virtual terminal allows you to manually process payments from any computer which has an internet connection, anywhere around the world.
What can I do with a virtual terminal?
- Manually enter payment transactions and accept credit cards over the phone, by fax, email, mail, or internet from any computer with an internet connection.
- Recurring charges can be automatically billed from customer accounts.
- Refunds are made easy as they can be quickly posted to your customer’s credit card.
- Previously authorized transactions can be reviewed and recorded.
- Stored data can be used for research and reports, and the status of transactions can be checked and updated in real time.
Pros and Cons of using virtual terminals:
- A virtual terminal is a must for the business owner on the go, or a business who often engages in trade shows. Payments can easily be processed from a laptop or mobile device without the cost or inconvenience of more traditional point of sale devices. A virtual terminal is also often less expensive than on-line payment gateways, which can charge much larger amounts for automated credit card processing transaction.
- The only downfall of a virtual terminal is that payments are not automated and must be entered in manually. This can be inconvenient for e-commerce sites that need automation in order to quickly accept credit cards and process orders immediately. The virtual terminal is best for those businesses that have few orders or take orders mostly by mail or telephone (MOTO).
Costs associated with a virtual terminal:
There are costs that come with using a virtual terminal, but they are lower in comparison to other payment processing methods. They include:
- Fees for initial set-up
- Monthly service fees
- Annual fees
- Transaction fees including: minimum transaction fees, percentage of transaction or flat fees
- Statement fees
