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Virtual Terminal Credit Card Processing: 7 Benefits for Merchants
You and online customers credit use Square Card without a processing thought. Terminal General. You can card Virtual Terminal terminal charge customers, online sales, and create recurring payments to save time and get paid faster. In the middle of the busy day if you are accepting processing card credit through a physical POS terminal and it goes wrong. Net or USAePay. Joe June 7, at pm.
Accessories include card readers and printers. This option is ideal for businesses who take cards in person, but process them using their existing computer instead of a credit card machine or point-of-sale terminal. Most virtual terminal card readers plug into a USB port, but some are also Bluetooth compatible.
Receipt or standard printers may also be compatible with virtual terminals. That allows you to easily print a receipt for a customer, or to print reports. Costs for virtual terminals vary greatly, depending on your processor and their pricing model.
Virtual terminals may have a monthly charge, a per-transaction fee, a percentage markup, or other costs. Some companies will offer a free virtual terminal as part of a package when you pay for a payment gateway. Be sure to carefully review quotes and fees from your processor. If you are already processing credit cards and need to add a virtual terminal, you can contact your existing credit card processor to ask if they have a virtual terminal option.
They will be able to set you up with your gateway and virtual terminal and advise on any costs associated with the setup and use of the terminal. Many credit card processors offer virtual terminals. If you need help finding a processor, you can sign up for free at CardFellow to get quotes from processors using our processor comparison shopping tools.
BY Ben Dwyer. As the blog gained in popularity, Ben began directly assisting merchants in their search for a processor. Ben believes in empowering businesses by providing access to fair, competitive pricing, accurate information, and continued support.
His dedication to transparency and education has made CardFellow a staunch small business advocate in the credit card processing industry. I have not seen one for them on your website. Thank you for writing! Why no mention of Ayden? The one replacing paypal on ebay. Seems if good enough for paypal they would be among the top ten.
We actually DO have a review of Adyen! They are worth looking into, for sure. Thanks for the suggestion! This a good guide for starters. Doing it right from the start will save you fees. Definitely worth reading.
Would their ecommerce MID rates be competitive? You can get comparison quotes at CardFellow. I hope this helps and if you have further questions please let us know. Your email address will not be published. Your Review. Comment moderation is enabled. Your comment may take some time to appear. Please read the " User Review and Comment Policy " before posting.
Get Started With Featured Pick! Get Started. Try QuickBooks Today. Fattmerchant is one of our top picks for Credit Card Processing! We love Fattmerchant as a credit card processor for its predictable pricing, excellent service, and integrated billing features. Earn 1. BlueVine's small business checking has a 1. PaymentCloud is one of our top picks for credit card processing! Donorbox is one of our top picks for Donation Systems!
Donorbox is a versatile, feature-rich, and easy-to-use donation management system that can help you attract more recurring donors. Get started today for free. BigCommerce is one of our top picks for eCommerce Platforms! Bigcommerce offers exceptional tools for all eCommerce businesses from startups looking to build a site to enterprise-level systems.
Helcim is one of our top picks for payment processing! Helcim has exceptional service and an advanced platform that we highly recommend for businesses in Canada and the US.
Get three months free when you sign up with Helcim through our links! OnDeck is one of our top picks for Business Loans! OnDeck is our featured vendor for business loans and lines of credit.
Lendio is a free-to-use marketplace that allows you to compare lenders side-by-side. Our reviewers like ADP Payroll for its advanced employee management, strong payroll features, and great customer support. We love Revel POS for its advanced features and exceptional versatiliy in both the retail and restaurant industries.
Get a demo today to find out everything Revel has to offer! The SBA has expanded their loan portfolio and we have the list that no one else is talking about yet — Sign up for our newsletter to get your free copy! Fundera is one of our top picks for SBA loans!
Fundera is a free-to-use marketplace that allows you to compare lenders side-by-side. Easily find SBA 7 a loans alongside other financing options. ShippingEasy is one of our top picks for shipping software! ShippingEasy got a 5-star review from our team. No credit card required. Square is free to use and currently includes a free card reader at sign-up! No credit card is required to create your account. Our unbiased reviews and content are supported in part by affiliate partnerships , and we adhere to strict guidelines to preserve editorial integrity.
The editorial content on this page is not provided by any of the companies mentioned and has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities. Advertiser Disclosure: Our unbiased reviews and content are supported in part by affiliate partnerships , and we adhere to strict guidelines to preserve editorial integrity. Best for high-risk businesses Low-risk accounts are available. Best for high-volume businesses Subscription-based pricing exclusively.
Best for B2B Exclusively uses interchange-plus pricing Outstanding transparency. Best for general eCommerce Scales well to different transaction volumes Adequate toolset for most small businesses. Best for businesses with low-volume brick-and-mortar sales Free online store Powerful all-in-one service.
Pros Reasonable rates and fees Free credit card terminal Excellent customer support Shopping cart integration. Cons No publicly disclosed pricing. Pros Transparent wholesale pricing No long-term contract Next-day funding option available QuickBooks integration. Cons US merchants only Not suitable for low-volume businesses.
Pros Interchange-plus pricing offered exclusively No annual fee or monthly minimum Month-to-month billing with no early termination fees Outstanding sales transparency and highly ethical business practices.
Pros Free payment gateway and virtual terminal Month-to-month billing with no early termination fees Excellent customer service and support Scales well. Cons Only available to US-based merchants. Cons Account stability issues Advanced features require a monthly fee. Pros Exclusive interchange-plus processing rates No long-term contracts or early termination fees Minimal monthly account fees Excellent customer support.
Pros Specialists in placing high-risk and other hard-to-place merchants Offers offshore merchant accounts for some international merchants Fair pricing and excellent contract terms Dedicated account manager for customer service. Cons No pricing disclosures on the website. Pros Predictable flat-rate pricing Ideal for low-volume merchants Extensive integrations All-in-one payments system.
Cons Account stability issues Inconsistent customer support Not suitable for high-risk industries. Pros Excellent developer tools Predictable flat-rate pricing Advanced reporting, marketplace, and subscription tools Can take international transactions. Cons Account stability issues Needs technical skill to implement. What is the most secure online payment method? How does online payment processing work?
What is the best online payment processor for a small business? How long does it take an online payment to process? What is the cheapest way to accept payments online? Can I add recurring billing to my online payment solution? How do I keep my online payment processing secure? Can I migrate my customer's data? Can my nonprofit organization get discounted online processing rates? Bio Latest Posts. Chris Motola is a writer, programmer, game designer, and product of NY.
These days he's mostly writing about financial products, but in a past life he wrote about health care and business. He's a graduate of the University of Central Florida. Latest posts by Chris Motola see all. Show more. Show less. Hide Sources. Read Next.
Read More Dec 22, 14 Filed under: eCommerce. Leave a comment 19 Comments Responses are not provided or commissioned by the vendor or bank advertiser. Harith Motoshiromizu March 13, at am. This comment refers to an earlier version of this post and may be outdated. Dennis M. If you are an online retailer then shopping cart or hosted payment form is the solution or if you are brick-and-mortar retailer than physical POS is the solution for accepting credit card payments.
Then how would you accept credit cards payments of your clients if neither POS terminal nor checkout pages meet your business needs? In this article, I will explain you the major benefits of virtual terminal credit card processing for a business. Through the computer web browser merchant log in to its merchant account to process payments from the Virtual Terminal. Once the merchant completes the form, the merchant submits the required information to process the electronic payment request.
A virtual terminal allows a business to enter payment details on behalf of their customers to process a payment. But a payment gateway is a function of processing an electronic card payment. Payment gateways are used on e-commerce websites where buyers pay for their purchase. This enables small businesses to begin with a small capital and later upgrade to other payment solutions as the business grows. As the virtual terminal credit card processing is not bound to any particular hardware device like other POS devices.
So a merchant can use it from any device and from anywhere. You just need to sign in to the software from your laptop or from PC and check your sales details.
Or even you can use it on your smartphone too.
What’s a virtual terminal?
Payment gateways are used on e-commerce websites where buyers pay for their purchase. This enables small businesses to begin with a small capital and later upgrade to other payment solutions as the business grows. As the virtual terminal credit card processing is not bound to any particular hardware device like other POS devices. So a merchant can use it from any device and from anywhere. You just need to sign in to the software from your laptop or from PC and check your sales details.
Or even you can use it on your smartphone too. With the virtual terminal, it can be possible to access it by the multiple numbers of users at same time.
Which is usually not possible with Physical POS terminal. This provides the ability to check sales report by marketing guys and the accountants at the same time. As a business owner, you already have lots of other burdens on yourself and you will never want that your POS terminal will break down in the middle of a busy day.
As the virtual POS point of sale terminal works over the web-based platform, so it does not require any physical upgrade. The software of the virtual terminal can be remotely updated on a regular basis by the VPOS terminal provider, without any extra charge.
In the middle of the busy day if you are accepting credit card payment through a physical POS terminal and it goes wrong. It does everything you need:. Our mobile payment tools now let you accept credit cards on an iPhone, an Android handset, a Windows Phone.
You can even accept credit cards through your Ipad or Tablet Device. American Express® requires separate approval. Monthly fees may apply. A virtual terminal turns your computer into a credit card terminal. Key in and charge credit and debit card payments from any browser. No special equipment or devices required. Split any transaction across different payment methods, including cash, Square Gift Cards, or multiple credit and debit cards.
Set up the item library of your goods and services, taxes, and discounts, so you can quickly charge customers. Email, text, or print professional receipts for every payment from your computer, regardless of how customers pay. Bill your customers for recurring payments on a weekly, monthly, or yearly basis, and securely store customer card information on file. Create customer profiles, add notes, and view purchase histories using Square Customer Directory.
Get paid as fast as the next business day free, instantly for a small fee, or with the free Square Card as soon as a payment is charged. We keep card data safe from end to end and track fraudulent cards to protect you and your customers. When payment disputes occur, our team of experts deals with the bank for you so you can focus on your business. Our highly trained support team is available via phone or email.
Use online resources, such as the Square Seller Community forum and Square Support Center, to find answers to many common questions. Pay 2. You can use Virtual Terminal to charge customers, itemize sales, and create recurring payments to save time and get paid faster. So credit card networks put measures in place to protect against this potentially higher risk of fraud, including charging Square higher fees. First, you need to sign up for your free account with Square.
Enter the amount and click Charge. More detailed steps below.
Take payments. Get paid. No surprises.
That allows you to easily print a receipt for a customer, or to print reports. Costs for virtual terminals vary greatly, depending on your processor and their pricing model. Virtual terminals may have a monthly charge, a per-transaction fee, a percentage markup, or other costs. Some companies will offer a free virtual terminal as part of a package when you pay for a payment gateway.
Be sure to carefully review quotes and fees from your processor. If you are already processing credit cards and need to add a virtual terminal, you can contact your existing credit card processor to ask if they have a virtual terminal option. They will be able to set you up with your gateway and virtual terminal and advise on any costs associated with the setup and use of the terminal.
Many credit card processors offer virtual terminals. If you need help finding a processor, you can sign up for free at CardFellow to get quotes from processors using our processor comparison shopping tools. BY Ben Dwyer. As the blog gained in popularity, Ben began directly assisting merchants in their search for a processor.
Ben believes in empowering businesses by providing access to fair, competitive pricing, accurate information, and continued support.
His dedication to transparency and education has made CardFellow a staunch small business advocate in the credit card processing industry. Use the secrets that credit card processors don't want you to know to drastically lower your credit card processing fees. View all articles. Toggle navigation Sign Up for Free. Sign Up for Free Log In. March 23, Guide to Square Alternatives: Edition. Credit Card Processing exposed Use the secrets that credit card processors don't want you to know to drastically lower your credit card processing fees.
Read Now! Please join the conversation Cancel reply Your email address will not be published. Get started now! Copyright © CardFellow. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy. Which is usually not possible with Physical POS terminal. This provides the ability to check sales report by marketing guys and the accountants at the same time.
As a business owner, you already have lots of other burdens on yourself and you will never want that your POS terminal will break down in the middle of a busy day. As the virtual POS point of sale terminal works over the web-based platform, so it does not require any physical upgrade. The software of the virtual terminal can be remotely updated on a regular basis by the VPOS terminal provider, without any extra charge.
In the middle of the busy day if you are accepting credit card payment through a physical POS terminal and it goes wrong. In this case, you have only choice to stop the process and call the maintenance department.
But if suppose you are using your iPad as virtual POS and it goes wrong. Then immediately you can log in to the software from your laptop or smartphone and resume the operation. It will reduce beginning and progress costs, enhance the user experience for clients and avail the powerful analytics and reporting tools. Choosing a virtual POS terminal is the easiest approach to bring your business into the 21st century, and that as well, requiring little to no effort!
Depending on your business, it may be better to use a hosted payment form or physical POS terminal. But if you want to accept credit cards payments for mail or phone orders, a virtual terminal is the best option for you. It offers a credit card processing payments system. Which is very flexible, secure, easy and affordable to accept credit card payments. Virtual terminal enables businesses to give customers the convenience of paying credit card payments as compared to the traditional store.
Virtual Terminal Credit Card Processing: 7 Benefits for Merchants Nowadays, processing transactions are not only limited to face-to-face retail interactions, as buyers now use different ways to shop and pay for their shopping. Categories General. Tags accept credit cards benefits of accepting credit cards Businesses accepting credit cards credentials of credit card processing services credit card processing credit card processing services for a business merchant processing merchant services.
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Accept and record payments on your computer.
You already know how to use it. Learn how you can take payments on your terms. Get more info. Nice to meet you. First name. Last name. Business name. Industry Select Estimated annual revenue Select And neither will we. Designed for reliability Square Terminal is designed to withstand the busiest checkouts. Packed with everything you need.
Square Terminal is a cordless credit card machine for every business. Process chip cards in just two seconds on Square Terminal. Create preset items and discounts to ring up customers even faster. Take payments at the table—Square Terminal is a portable debit and credit card machine.
Shop now. Talk to us about a custom rate. Contact Sales. Connect Terminal to any POS. Connect with us. Hardware You and your customers can use Square Terminal without a second thought. All-in-one device Accept all payment types and print receipts with one compact device. Easy to use Simply set up your Square account to get started. Learn more. Durable and strong Sell confidently knowing Terminal has ultra-durable construction that helps provide resistance to damage from everyday use.
Powerful battery Ditch the messy cords and sell all day with a battery designed to last from open to close. Touchscreen display Work fast with an intuitive touchscreen and adjustable screen brightness. Software Square Terminal has all the software you need to make your day-to-day simpler, so you can focus on what matters: your business and customers.
Flexible and customizable Customize the flow of checkout screens and receipt options to fit your business. Customer Directory Automatically track purchase history, send digital receipts, and collect private customer feedback. Offline Mode Keep swiping payments when your internet connection goes down and never miss a sale. For eCommerce specifically, PaymentCloud offers a gateway via Authorize. Net or USAePay.
You can, however, use any compatible gateway you want. Get Started with PaymentCloud. Read our in-depth review. Jump back to comparison chart 2. Fattmerchant Fattmerchant. At Merchant Maverick, we give a lot of love to interchange-plus pricing for being both transparent and usually cost-effective. Fattmerchant deals exclusively in subscription-based pricing sometimes called wholesale pricing.
Interchange-plus pricing separates the interchange fees charged by the credit card companies and those charged by your processor; your processor fees are usually still based on a percentage of your transaction e. Subscription pricing still charges you the interchange fee, but your processor fee is just a flat fee.
So unlike the earlier example of 0. You pay a monthly fee based on your processing volume. This makes subscription pricing very cost-effective for high-volume businesses and less so for low-volume. Get Started with Fattmerchant. Jump back to comparison chart 3. Read our Review. Best for B2B. This high-volume plan supports the use of Level II and III processing data for B2B transactions, so it can potentially lower your interchange rates and save you even more money.
This all-in-one service combines the features of a payment gateway and a virtual terminal into a single product. Get Started with Dharma Merchant Services. Jump back to comparison chart 4. With CDGcommerce, you get your choice of free payment gateways, including Authorize.
In other words, you should be covered for nearly endless integrations. There are no setup fees, monthly fees, or per-transaction fees for the use of the gateways. You get a virtual terminal at no extra charge as well as detailed online reporting. CDGcommerce uses different pricing schemes, depending on your sales volume. Get Started with CDGcommerce.
Jump back to comparison chart 5. Square Square. That said, Square does offer respectable eCommerce support and infrastructure that includes a free online store and shopping cart support.
These can be ideal for businesses that are primarily brick-and-mortar but also do a portion of their business online. Square uses a flat-rate pricing model for all of its transactions. For eCommerce transactions and invoices, Square charges 2.
Square is a great all-in-one solution for businesses that do a relatively low volume of transactions. Get Started with Square. Jump back to comparison chart 6. Helcim Helcim. Helcim is our pick for the best all-in-one platform provider because of its Helcim Commerce integrated payments platform. Helcim Commerce supports recurring billing and includes a customer information database. Tokenization, inventory management, and other features critical to running an online business are also built-in.
Helcim offers payment processing services to US and Canadian merchants. It gives you month-to-month billing with no long-term commitment and no additional cost to close your account. Helcim uses interchange-plus pricing exclusively. Get Started with Helcim. Jump back to comparison chart 7.
Durango Merchant Services is our top pick for high-risk businesses needing online merchant credit card processing. High-risk businesses typically have a harder time finding providers that will approve their applications for merchant accounts. Because Durango works with so many back-end processors to get you set up with an account, all of these factors will be highly variable and subject to negotiation.
Unfortunately, you should fully expect to pay higher processing rates than a comparable low-risk business would have to pay. You should also anticipate being placed on a tiered pricing plan, although interchange-plus is sometimes available.
However, in an industry riddled with not entirely ethical service providers, Durango is one of the few high-risk providers that enjoys an excellent reputation for fair prices and contract terms.
The company goes out of its way to get you the best and most affordable deal possible. Durango will assign a dedicated account manager who will be your primary point of contact if you encounter any problems. Get Started with Durango Merchant Services. Jump back to comparison chart 8. PayPal PayPal. The hard way involves working with APIs that require computer programming skills.
The easy way is to add some readily-prepared code to your website yourself. PayPal excels at the latter, offering simple integration of a whole host of payment processing services.
There are no monthly minimums and no other fees in addition to the transaction cost itself 2. If you wish to have more services, you can.
You can integrate PayPal as a supplemental option with PayPal Checkout or make it your primary processor. PayPal offers an entire suite of services directed at online merchants. Along with being able to accept online payments and send invoices, PayPal uses its own gateway, which you can use on a per-transaction basis or by paying a monthly fee.
Nonprofits are eligible for a discount and can easily set up a donation button on their site. PayPal is by default PCI compliant — it does so by redirecting your customers to its site to complete their transactions.
Jump back to comparison chart 9. Stripe Payments Stripe Payments. Stripe Payments, like PayPal, has reached the point where its name is synonymous with internet commerce. Stripe is open to merchants worldwide with numerous currency options and support for many alternative payment methods and local payment options across North America, the EU, and Asia.
Stripe gives you a gateway, a hosted payment page, PCI compliance, and the ability to migrate your customer data if you ever decide to leave. Stripe charges just 2. Stripe also offers ACH payments at 0. It can take longer to set up an account with a direct processor because they investigate your financial stability before approving you. Third-party processors — also known as payment service providers PSPs or aggregators — only perform a cursory financial vetting before approving the account.
However, because so little underwriting is done beforehand, the processor analyzes your activities with greater scrutiny afterward, and you are more likely to encounter an account hold or termination, usually with little to no notice.
If you plan to sell online, you need a payment gateway. However, the concept of a gateway can become somewhat fuzzy because third-party processors, such as PayPal and Stripe Payments, combine their services with a built-in gateway. Merchant account providers may have their own gateways available for an additional fee, or they may choose to set you up with a third-party gateway not to be confused with a third-party payment processor.
For a monthly fee, SaaS shopping carts offer web hosting and storage, SSL certificates, and other tools to build and maintain a website. Self-hosted solutions are typically free to download because they are open-source, and they offer a lot of features and customizability — if you have the technical know-how to pull it off. The big change here is that Visa and Mastercard both postponed updates to their interchange fees in Usually, both companies update their rates twice a year.
Changes are expected in Visa will probably update rates in April Rumor has it both companies had planned to raise their interchange fees on eCommerce transactions but held off due to the pandemic-fueled growth in card-not-present transactions. Nevertheless, online credit card fraud is a growing problem that will likely raise rates in the near future. To combat this, Visa and Mastercard are recommending that merchants use tokenization.
If you have the capacity, now is a good time to get ahead of the curve and implement tokenization, as it may affect your rates down the road. Choosing a good online merchant services provider involves more than just finding one that offers you lower processing rates and account fees than the competition. Here are some other considerations you should take into account when selecting a provider:. One of the safest ways to pay online is probably through a method that uses tokenization — which means Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay, or similar.
That way, the actual card number is never transmitted online. Even if the number is somehow stolen, the card associations can easily deactivate the token and send the consumer a new card. Most eCommerce-enabled online payment service providers offer either a combined gateway and processing service or let you choose a compatible gateway.
That depends on your sales volume, the nature of your business, and the features you require. Keep track of your business Stay up to date using the real-time reporting tools in your Square Dashboard.
Integrated with the rest of your business. Quickly export Virtual Terminal transactions to accounting software such as QuickBooks. Easily download and analyze records with data tools like Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets. Data security We keep card data safe from end to end and track fraudulent cards to protect you and your customers.
Dispute management When payment disputes occur, our team of experts deals with the bank for you so you can focus on your business. All-in-one setup Your Square account gives you everything you need to take payments—no need to visit a bank. Online refunds Process customer refunds for payments directly from your online Square Dashboard. Processing fee 3. Set up your free Square account now. Start taking payments from your computer in minutes. Get started. What can I actually do with Virtual Terminal?
Why are Virtual Terminal payments priced differently? How can I get started with Square Virtual Terminal? Does Virtual Terminal work for Windows or Mac? What is the difference between a quick charge vs. Square has more ways to help you run your business.
Try it now.
How Does Credit Card Processing Work Online - Websites, Payment Gateways, Checkout Pages
None of those, too. Security is engineered into our products from the ground up. We follow industry requirements that keep data safe instead of passing that responsibility on to you.
We constantly monitor for suspicious activity and block fraudulent transactions. When payment disputes occur, our team of experts deals with the bank for you, helping you avoid costly chargebacks. Get up and running in fewer than five minutes—no need to go through a bank.
Square Terminal is an intuitively designed credit card machine so you, your team, and your customers can use it right away. Join our email list for more information about how this all-in-one solution can serve your entire business. We think businesses are as unique as the people who run them. Get individualized content on the topics you care about most by telling us a little more about yourself. Square Terminal is designed to withstand the busiest checkouts.
All things considered, we save money with Square. Square offers a powerful suite of services to help you run and grow your business. Sales tax, where applicable, will be due at checkout. All plans subject to credit approval and other factors. You and your customers can use Square Terminal without a second thought. And with strong, ultra-durable construction, it can withstand the busiest checkouts. Sell confidently knowing Terminal has ultra-durable construction that helps provide resistance to damage from everyday use.
Square Terminal has all the software you need to make your day-to-day simpler, so you can focus on what matters: your business and customers. Automatically track purchase history, send digital receipts, and collect private customer feedback.
Use the latest software with included automatic updates. Choose an update schedule that suits you best. Motivate customers to return again and again with a digital rewards program, managed and tracked right in your Square Point of Sale.
Create email and social campaigns in your POS within minutes. Track results and target specific groups of customers.
Set different levels of access to your POS by employee and track sales and hours worked as they clock in and out. Import timecards and pay any combination of hourly, salaried, and contract employees automatically. For eligible Square sellers, Square Capital offers access to small business loans to grow your business. Buy equipment, purchase inventory, or fund any other business need. From accounting apps and eCommerce solutions to inventory management, Square works with apps for any need.
Connect in just a few steps, sync your data, and manage apps right from your Square Dashboard. Loan eligibility is not guaranteed.
More detailed steps below. A quick charge is when you want to enter just the amount of the transaction. An itemized sale is possible after setting up an item library for your items or services, which provides you with better insights into sales and gives your customers more detailed receipts.
We make it easy to plug and play, and integrate the tools you need directly at the Point of Sale. Get personalized recommendations for tools that can help your business by answering a few quick questions.
Square Virtual Terminal. Take your first payment. For help getting started, connect with us. Virtual Terminal. Make payments simple to accept and track.
Charge cards from your computer Key in and charge credit and debit card payments from any browser. Record all types of payments Accept and record cash, checks, Square Gift Cards, and other payments from your computer. Split any transaction Split any transaction across different payment methods, including cash, Square Gift Cards, or multiple credit and debit cards.
Provide better service with free tools. Speed up checkout Set up the item library of your goods and services, taxes, and discounts, so you can quickly charge customers. Issue receipts Email, text, or print professional receipts for every payment from your computer, regardless of how customers pay. Schedule recurring payments Bill your customers for recurring payments on a weekly, monthly, or yearly basis, and securely store customer card information on file.
Manage and run your business more easily. Keep track of your business Stay up to date using the real-time reporting tools in your Square Dashboard. Read More. Visit Site. Read more below to learn why we chose these options. While the best online credit card processors for any given business will vary by your needs, these companies collectively offer the most value for your money.
Another great option for businesses in high-risk industries is PaymentCloud. This payment service comes highly recommended by esteemed low-risk services such as Dharma Merchant Services, which refers high-risk applicants to PaymentCloud. Typically, this means tiered-pricing, monthly minimums, and contracts at least initially , but you can expect to be treated fairly by PaymentCloud. For eCommerce specifically, PaymentCloud offers a gateway via Authorize. Net or USAePay. You can, however, use any compatible gateway you want.
Get Started with PaymentCloud. Read our in-depth review. Jump back to comparison chart 2. Fattmerchant Fattmerchant. At Merchant Maverick, we give a lot of love to interchange-plus pricing for being both transparent and usually cost-effective.
Fattmerchant deals exclusively in subscription-based pricing sometimes called wholesale pricing. Interchange-plus pricing separates the interchange fees charged by the credit card companies and those charged by your processor; your processor fees are usually still based on a percentage of your transaction e. Subscription pricing still charges you the interchange fee, but your processor fee is just a flat fee.
So unlike the earlier example of 0. You pay a monthly fee based on your processing volume. This makes subscription pricing very cost-effective for high-volume businesses and less so for low-volume. Get Started with Fattmerchant.
Jump back to comparison chart 3. Read our Review. Best for B2B. This high-volume plan supports the use of Level II and III processing data for B2B transactions, so it can potentially lower your interchange rates and save you even more money.
This all-in-one service combines the features of a payment gateway and a virtual terminal into a single product. Get Started with Dharma Merchant Services. Jump back to comparison chart 4. With CDGcommerce, you get your choice of free payment gateways, including Authorize.
In other words, you should be covered for nearly endless integrations. There are no setup fees, monthly fees, or per-transaction fees for the use of the gateways. You get a virtual terminal at no extra charge as well as detailed online reporting. CDGcommerce uses different pricing schemes, depending on your sales volume. Get Started with CDGcommerce. Jump back to comparison chart 5. Square Square. That said, Square does offer respectable eCommerce support and infrastructure that includes a free online store and shopping cart support.
These can be ideal for businesses that are primarily brick-and-mortar but also do a portion of their business online. Square uses a flat-rate pricing model for all of its transactions. For eCommerce transactions and invoices, Square charges 2. Square is a great all-in-one solution for businesses that do a relatively low volume of transactions. Get Started with Square. Jump back to comparison chart 6. Helcim Helcim. Helcim is our pick for the best all-in-one platform provider because of its Helcim Commerce integrated payments platform.
Helcim Commerce supports recurring billing and includes a customer information database. Tokenization, inventory management, and other features critical to running an online business are also built-in. Helcim offers payment processing services to US and Canadian merchants.
It gives you month-to-month billing with no long-term commitment and no additional cost to close your account. Helcim uses interchange-plus pricing exclusively.
Get Started with Helcim. Jump back to comparison chart 7. Durango Merchant Services is our top pick for high-risk businesses needing online merchant credit card processing. High-risk businesses typically have a harder time finding providers that will approve their applications for merchant accounts. Because Durango works with so many back-end processors to get you set up with an account, all of these factors will be highly variable and subject to negotiation.
Unfortunately, you should fully expect to pay higher processing rates than a comparable low-risk business would have to pay. You should also anticipate being placed on a tiered pricing plan, although interchange-plus is sometimes available. However, in an industry riddled with not entirely ethical service providers, Durango is one of the few high-risk providers that enjoys an excellent reputation for fair prices and contract terms.
The company goes out of its way to get you the best and most affordable deal possible. Durango will assign a dedicated account manager who will be your primary point of contact if you encounter any problems. Get Started with Durango Merchant Services. Jump back to comparison chart 8. PayPal PayPal. The hard way involves working with APIs that require computer programming skills. The easy way is to add some readily-prepared code to your website yourself. PayPal excels at the latter, offering simple integration of a whole host of payment processing services.
There are no monthly minimums and no other fees in addition to the transaction cost itself 2. If you wish to have more services, you can. You can integrate PayPal as a supplemental option with PayPal Checkout or make it your primary processor. PayPal offers an entire suite of services directed at online merchants. Along with being able to accept online payments and send invoices, PayPal uses its own gateway, which you can use on a per-transaction basis or by paying a monthly fee.
Nonprofits are eligible for a discount and can easily set up a donation button on their site. PayPal is by default PCI compliant — it does so by redirecting your customers to its site to complete their transactions. Jump back to comparison chart 9. Stripe Payments Stripe Payments.
Stripe Payments, like PayPal, has reached the point where its name is synonymous with internet commerce. Stripe is open to merchants worldwide with numerous currency options and support for many alternative payment methods and local payment options across North America, the EU, and Asia. Stripe gives you a gateway, a hosted payment page, PCI compliance, and the ability to migrate your customer data if you ever decide to leave. Stripe charges just 2.
Stripe also offers ACH payments at 0. It can take longer to set up an account with a direct processor because they investigate your financial stability before approving you. Third-party processors — also known as payment service providers PSPs or aggregators — only perform a cursory financial vetting before approving the account.
However, because so little underwriting is done beforehand, the processor analyzes your activities with greater scrutiny afterward, and you are more likely to encounter an account hold or termination, usually with little to no notice. If you plan to sell online, you need a payment gateway. However, the concept of a gateway can become somewhat fuzzy because third-party processors, such as PayPal and Stripe Payments, combine their services with a built-in gateway.
Merchant account providers may have their own gateways available for an additional fee, or they may choose to set you up with a third-party gateway not to be confused with a third-party payment processor. For a monthly fee, SaaS shopping carts offer web hosting and storage, SSL certificates, and other tools to build and maintain a website. Self-hosted solutions are typically free to download because they are open-source, and they offer a lot of features and customizability — if you have the technical know-how to pull it off.
The big change here is that Visa and Mastercard both postponed updates to their interchange fees in Usually, both companies update their rates twice a year. Changes are expected in Visa will probably update rates in April Rumor has it both companies had planned to raise their interchange fees on eCommerce transactions but held off due to the pandemic-fueled growth in card-not-present transactions.
Nevertheless, online credit card fraud is a growing problem that will likely raise rates in the near future. To combat this, Visa and Mastercard are recommending that merchants use tokenization. If you have the capacity, now is a good time to get ahead of the curve and implement tokenization, as it may affect your rates down the road.