Virtual Terminal for Payments

[treatment feel]

Hi all.

Probably a question which gets asked from time to time, but always good to get an updated answer.

I take customers' card details at present through a website but pass to my clients for processing. However, I will soon need to process these payments myself.
Transaction amounts will range from £100 to £25000 but most will be to a maximum of £5000.

What I want to do is take the card details then put them into an online "virtual terminal" for processing.

Does anyone have good experience with any particular provider of this service?

[NetConneXions]

had experience of using a virtual terminal with the following:

Paypal.co.uk (web payments pro)
Authorise.net
PROTX

All excellent.

[johndon68]

I use PayPal's Virtual Terminal and have had no problems with it at all.

John

[Page]

They are quite big sums for VT's and this may have implications.

I would suggest you start by phoning a couple like protx and paypal pro and have a two way conversation. It may be that things are killed off for you straight away.

[That Guy]

Have used paypal virtual terminal in the past but not sure what the maximum transaction amount is. Paypal virtual terminal may work out more expensive than other providers too.

[PayPoint net]

Have you spoken to your existing online payments processor to see if they can offer you a virtual terminal? It may be the easier way to go especially if you’re planning to keep them on as your online payments processor. The reason for this is that most acquiring banks that issue internet merchant accounts only allow one payment service provider to process into it. Consequently, if you have a different virtual terminal provider, you may have to get another merchant ID which means you’ll end up paying monthly fees on two accounts.

[serendipitybusiness]

Be very careful about accepting amounts over £500 with paypal because they can freeze your money for upto 120 days without any real reason. It has happened to a friend of mine although the transaction went through fine (this one was on ebay with positive feedback left after delivery and tracked postage) and after she had spent weeks jumping through hoops and filled out all of their criteria sending passport details and alsorts they still said she couldn't access the money for 120 days.

It was only when I got involved and wrote to them requesting details for legal reasons on her behalf that they released the funds. When looking into this I read some real horror stories about them with holding hundreds of thousands of pounds and putting businesses into bankruptcy.

However in saying that I have used them for years and not encountered major problems bar the odd reversal that the client wasn't even aware of. However my transactions don't tend to go over £150.

Also bear in mind the fees will also be more substantial than a standard merchant.

I wish you all the best whichever way you go.