Virtual terminal credit card processing allows you to manually input customer payments through a secure web connection. It’s ideal for businesses that take orders by phone, fax or mail, such as catalogue-based or telemarketing companies.
It also works for e-commerce sellers who need to make payments on a mobile device. The payment portal is accessible on a computer, smartphone or tablet. It is typically accessed via an encrypted connection that protects the merchant’s sensitive information and reduces PCI scope and liability.
The payment gateway may support features such as tokenization to replace the customer’s personal account number (PAN) with a unique alphanumeric ID that is meaningless to everyone except the processor, reducing the risk of data breach. It may also offer end-to-end encryption to further safeguard sensitive information during transmission.
You can receive confirmation of your transaction’s approval or rejection in real time and most virtual terminals allow you to send the client a copy of their receipt. Most also allow you to set up recurring payments, which is ideal for landscaping companies that need to charge weekly or monthly and small businesses with accounts receivable.
In addition, virtual terminals are a great solution for one-time purchases such as tickets to events or a dinner at a restaurant. The payment gateway can also be integrated with an accounting or CRM system to provide a seamless buying experience for repeat customers. It can also save the customer’s payment details in a secure virtual card vault, which can speed up and streamline future transactions. virtual terminal credit card processing