excepting payment over the phone?

[mrlister]

Hi, I'm looking at setting up a business where the purchaser may have to pay over the phone, where do I need to start to allow payment over the phone and what protection do I have? The business at the moment is only based in the UK?


Thanks

 

[Retail Merchant Services]

Hi. First of all, we'll make it clear that we're a card payment services business and we'd love your business - but we'll try to be as unbiased as possible.

1. You will need either:

a. A merchant account with a virtual terminal
b. A merchant account with a 'real' hardware credit card machine/terminal

2. Merchant accounts are available from:

a. Us.
b. The big four banks
c. Other Independent Sales Organisations (ISOs)

If you will also be taking payments instore or in-person we would recommend a 'real' hardware credit card terminal. If you will not be taking payments instore or in-person we would recommend a virtual terminal, which with us, attracts a discounted price.

The most important things to ask from any provider are:

1. What up-front fees are involved? We don't charge any set-up fees.
2. What on-going fees are involved? Especially, card transaction rates, authorisation fees, refund fees etc.
3. Are there any minimum monthly charges and if so, what are they?
4. Is the system PCI DSS compliant? It should be already - but ask just in case.
5. How long will you be tied to the provider for? There are some providers dealing in long 5 year contracts - be careful.
6. How long will it take to get the funds into your bank account?

There's a few hints and tips for you. We hope it helps and if you need anything else, just PM us or call us on 0845 241 9960 and you can speak directly to a Payments Expert.

 

[Amt8]

Hi there,

In response to your query, if you are looking at accepting telephone payments, I work for a company called PaymentSense merchant services, we cover a range of virtual terminal packages for accepting telephone payments from £10 a month, these are all PCI DSS Compliant systems with transparant costs, and there is no long term contract.

If you would like to know a bit more, feel free to send me a message and I will be happy to send you some details.

Kind Regards

Amri

 

[HertsCCTV]

and the fight starts LOL

 

[Ian-M]

We take card payments over the phone as well as on our website so have some practical experience. You asked about what protection you have. The answer is hardly any in my experience. It also depends on whether you are you providing a service or shipping a product? Are you dealing with consumers or business to business?

The steps you need to protect yourself depend on what you are providing. Start by taking the attitude that you need to protect yourself rather than relying on anything from the payment provider. For instance, if you are shipping a product you may want to make sure the cardholder address matches the delivery address.

The other factor with taking payments over the phone is that you will pay higher charges to the payment provider. The card companies are keen to push 3D secure payments which you can't do over the phone, so you will probably get a surcharge. One option is to take the order over the phone and then send a confirmation email to the customer with a link to your payment provider for them to make payment. This way they can enter their 3D security information. Whether this is practical for your business depends on the nature of your product or service.

Hope this helps.

Ian

 

[BusyVids]

We use PayPal Payments Pro, which allows us to acceopt payments on our websites, over the phone, fax and mail order. It costs £20.00 a month. Check it out www.paypal.co.uk