A virtual terminal can be a game-changer when it comes to safely accepting payments from your customers if you manage your business remotely or over the phone. Anywhere you have an Internet connection and a computer or a mobile phone, you can run virtual terminal solutions to process credit card information without requiring your customer’s presence.

How can virtual terminals benefit your business? What exactly is a virtual terminal?  How to run a virtual terminal on a phone? The purpose of this article is to provide you with information about your options for taking payments remotely via an online: virtual terminal solution.

Virtual terminals: what are they?

Virtual terminals are similar to physical credit card machines for business. In addition to being hosted online, virtual terminal solutions can be used to convert any computer or phone into a credit card processing terminal. With this service, you’ll be able to accept payments from wherever you are, at any time, making it the perfect solution for taking credit cards over the phone or for remote billing.

The use of virtual terminals can give business owners the ability to collect payments promptly without having to be present at the time of the transaction. Since you must manually enter the payment information instead of swiping or tapping as you would with a card machine for business, they can be somewhat time-consuming for businesses of all sizes.

Virtual terminal Solutions: why do you need them in your business?

To expedite and streamline the payment processing process, you can use a virtual payment terminal. It’s always better to have options to settle your payments when you’re in business. Your internal and external environments can change at any time, so you need to be flexible to adapt. In addition to its real-time functionality, the virtual payment terminal also allows QuickBooks syncing. Payments can be automated with a virtual terminal, and there are no CSV files to prepare, so there is no manual labour involved.

Card payments over the phone using a virtual terminal

One of the biggest advantages of virtual terminal solutions is that they can turn any electronic device into a virtual card machine for businesses for taking card payments. Mobile phones are the most popular electronic device in the current era. It is hard to find a person who doesn’t have access to a mobile phone today.

According to a recent study, people have a special bond with their mobile phones, and they tend to use them for almost everything. As an example of this, you can look at the increasing popularity of mobile wallets. With virtual terminal solutions, one can easily run their business over their phone without much effort. With this method, one saves time and money by not running a physical point-of-sale terminal, while also satisfying their customers by accepting payments anytime from anywhere.

Getting started with a virtual terminal on the mobile phone is simple. Depending on your merchant service provider, you will have to:

• Log into an online payment gateway dashboard using any browser on your mobile phone and open the virtual terminal provided by your service provider.
• Select the preferred payment type of your customer, whether it is credit/debit or eCheck/ACH.
• To initiate a transaction, you should enter the transaction amount.
• You must manually input the customer’s card details to the virtual terminal without any errors in the next phase of the payment procedure. If you have a USB card reader, your work will be easier as you can swipe the card using it to read the card holder’s details.
• To proceed with the transaction, click the submit button on the virtual terminal after checking the details.
• Card holder’s bank will verify the details input by you then you will receive confirmation of the card approval or decline. It is possible for clients to receive a copy of the receipt via email if a virtual terminal transaction is approved. 
• Within the virtual terminal, you can process payments, issue refunds, and review your transaction history, which is extremely helpful when it comes to maintaining your account information and record-keeping.

In the case of card-not-present (CNP) environments, such as telephone and mail orders, virtual terminals tend to cost more due to the higher level of risk associated with these transactions. It is important that you trust the person providing you with the account information to be the correct cardholder. In such a scenario be vigilant against scammers who cause card fraud that will damage your business reputation and your loyalty to the customer.

Whether a customer stands in front of you or not, if you manually input the information, the sale is considered a card-not-present transaction. Accepting ACH/eCheck as well as credit and debit cards at a virtual terminal can help you reduce transaction processing fees. The cost of this type of electronic payment is typically lower than the cost of traditional credit card payments. You can also minimize your processing fees by using a USB card reader when selling in person. With a USB card reader, you can avoid typing errors completely, which makes it faster and more secure.