As Easy As Online Banking: Advantages to Using a Virtual Terminal

Do you have little to no face to face dealings with you customers? No problem!!!! Many businesses today provided products and services to individual and commercial clients in the environment where the two parties are not in the same city, state, or country for that matter. In the instance where parties agree to conduct business together but cannot complete the transaction in a face to face setting and where the merchant does not want to billed the customer at a later time, the virtual terminal offers on solution to this problem. This payment platform is a substitute for the physical point of sale (credit card terminal) systems used by traditional businesses to conduct card present transactions. This web-based solution is best suited for merchants processing mail orders from catalog sales, manual orders taken over the telephone, and for mobile merchants out in the field selling at fairs, carnivals, festivals ect.

The virtual terminal is web-based payment processing system that gives the merchant the ability to manually key in the cardholder's card payment information. Through this web-based processing system the merchant (the account holder) logs onto a PCI compliant terminal with their username and password, enters their customer's credit card information, expiration date, and security code, the transaction amount and invoice number is entered, and after the transaction is completed the merchant receives a confirmation that the payment was accepted or declined. The immediate benefit of this web-based solution is that the merchant is accepting the customer's payment directly by entering their card information and completing the transactions entering. Merchants must also be aware of the one major drawbacks associated with using this type of payment processing method. Because the card is not physically swiped through a card terminal the sale is considered a "card-not present" transaction and therefore the merchant would pay higher processing fees all transactions.

Merchants using the virtual terminal can process two types of payment formats. First, merchants can accept and process bank card payments such as credit, debit, gift, and prepaid cards. And secondly, merchants using this payment platform can also accept and process ACH payments where payments directly are debited from the payee's checking. The recurring billing method to process the payments of the merchant's client base is not, however, supported by this platform.

What is also very important to note is that the virtual terminal payment system is not to be confused with its online counterpart the payment gateway. The payment gateway is an e-commerce solution that uses an online shopping cart to capture the customer's order and card payment information. With the payment gateway the merchant's customers manually key in their payment information. After the customer completes and submits their order, the card information is then sent electronically to the processing bank's server, the customer's information is then forwarded to Visa or Master Card, who completes the loop by forwarding the payment detail to the card issuing bank who makes the final determination to either authorize or decline the transaction. The distinction between the two systems should be clear with the virtual terminal the merchant is keying in the customers payment information to complete the transaction but with the payment gateway it is the customer who enters in their own information on the merchant's e-commerce interface (website).

In conclusion, the virtual terminal offers the merchant the flexibility to conduct business and complete a transaction any where at any time so as long as the merchant internet connectivity and access to a computer. They don't have worry about losing sales because their customer only wants to pay with a card instead of cash or check.