What is a Virtual Terminal? A Virtual Terminal provides payment acceptance for merchants who key-enter credit cards and/or wish to accept electronic check transactions via direct mail or telephone order (MOTO) sales. Virtual Terminals are one of the most misunderstood and undersold products in the industry!
Recently, I met with a client who NEVER SAW THEIR CUSTOMER FACE TO FACE! But they were leased a credit card terminal and had to key-enter all their transactions driving their credit card rate higher than should have been. You see key-entering credit cards COSTS YOU MORE MONEY! Card Not Present fees (CNP rates and fees) are higher than “swiped" transactions because of the lower risk of fraud. Presumably, swiping a card is proof to the brands, Visa/MasterCard/Discover/American Express and their banks, that the credit card OWNER was physically present at the time of the purchase.
We are constantly asked why are key-entering fees so much higher (about .30% over swiped transactions)? Here are the main reasons:
- Card owner not present so some 20 year old man is using Mrs. Smith's credit card information he found dumpster diving on a statement.
- If a customer does a Chargeback and you are key-entering your transactions, the owner of the credit card can claim it was "NOT ME"! You have to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that it was indeed that customer that used his/her own credit card. You would need a credit card use authorization form sent to the customer and signed along with a copy of a valid driver's license and maybe even more. Please check with your credit card processing for more requirements.
- Accepting credit cards via email, phone or direct mail can also pose great risks for the merchant. Are these methods safe? Who is accepting that credit card data at the merchant location? Is it being stored anywhere, physically? Is it vulnerable and sitting where others can take is an use it! How well do YOU protect your client's credit card data?
Let me tell you an actual event: We had a customer that had thousands of dollars of credit cards fees stolen from a credit card GIVEN TO HIS BUSINESS as payment for upcoming work. As a contractor, he had written the credit card information on a payment form and had the customer sign it. He placed the signed form in a folder, he put the folder in his briefcase, the briefcase in his car, drove around a few hours with other business, then onto his desk, in his office, at his house!
Later that evening, he and his wife went out to dinner leaving a babysitter to watch their children. Little did they know that the babysitter had a boyfriend that came to visit her. In the few moments the babysitter went to check on the children, the boyfriend found the folder on the desk and snapped a picture of the payment form. Within the next 24 hours, this person, unbeknownst to anyone had gone online and bought about $4000 worth of merchandise and had it shipped to various friends houses. Immediately, the owner of the credit card, reported the fraud. And an investigation pursued. They traced back the breach to the contractor whom had neglected to protect his customer's credit card information. He was held liable for not only the $4000 but penalties and breach fees. As you can imagine, he lost that contract as well as many others and is not longer in the contracting business.
Here are the benefits of a Virtual Terminal:
- Virtual Terminals are excellent for many types of merchants since either the merchant or their employees can key-enter the card info directly into the virtual terminal gateway and immediately send the customer an email receipt.
- Each employee can have their own secure login and password to identify who took payments. Great for reporting purposes.
- ALL THE CREDIT CARD INFO IS STORED OFFSITE AT THE GATEWAY COMPANY NOT YOUR COMPUTER OR OFFICE!
- The customer info is also entered into the virtual terminal and the last 4 digits of the credit card. This allows you to create reports, verify payments and amounts.
- By keeping the customer data and credit card info behind the gateway's secure/encrypted firewall, you can recharge a client if requested by the client without them needing to resend you all their information.
- Most Virtual Terminal gateways offer "Recurring Billing" as a payment method option. This allows you to set up a customer on monthly payments until a determined date. The payments can be scheduled for the date agreed upon by both the merchant and the customer. Both the customer and the merchant get receipts emailed to them once that recurring payment has been transmitted- and approved. The merchant- will also get a notification if the card has expired or is declined.
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