If you’ve ever looked into using a virtual terminal to handle the payments for your retail, mail or telephone order business, you might be wondering whether it’s better to use a standard credit card machine (a.k.a, point of sale or POS terminal) or a virtual POS terminal. As with anything, there are advantages and disadvantages of each, and you need to consider the pluses and minuses in the context of your own business objectives–then figure out which payment option fits your situation best.
First of all: what’s a virtual terminal?
A virtual POS terminal is generally a secure web site you log into to process credit card and/or electronic check payments. It works a lot like your traditional credit card terminal, except it uses your computer and a secure Internet connection rather than a separate piece of hardware and a phone line to process the payment.
Advantages of a virtual POS terminal
There are quite a few benefits:
- Virtual terminals are available from any computer with an internet connection–if you’re at a trade show or travelling, you don’t have to carry extra equipment.
- There’s no extra hardware to clutter up your counter (or desk). Your computer is your credit card terminal.
- With a virtual terminal, updates are usually automatic. Credit card associations update their rules regularly, usually requiring credit card terminal owners to update their software and/or hardware. Virtual terminals eliminate that hassle because the software processing the payment is on the company’s server–not yours. That means when a change comes down the pipes, they take care of it for you and you never have to worry about it.
- Some virtual terminals allow you to plug in a card-swipe device or keyboard, so you can swipe credit cards or key them in.
- Several people can use it at once. This is really great for catalog call centers, where everyone on the floor usually has a computer anyway, so each of your call center workers can log into the virtual terminal right on their computer. It cuts costs tremendously because you don’t have to pay for each person to have their own POS terminal.
- Payment reports for humans–no paper required. While a traditional credit card terminal does typically have reporting built in, it’s a paper report that may not be the easiest thing to read. Usually with virtual terminals there is a reports module included that has visual reports designed for people to read online. Much easier to read and interpret, available anywhere (from a computer with internet access), and it saves paper because you can read it online.
- Some payment providers even let you download the report data right into a database or into Excel (or your favorite spreadsheet) so you can massage the data to your heart’s content.
The Down Side of Virtual Credit Card Terminals
Virtual credit card terminals are not all roses; they have their drawbacks too.
- If you don’t have a computer where you’re processing payments, it can be a hassle to put one there to run your payments. It only works to your benefit when you have a computer there anyway.
- Some virtual credit card terminals are cumbersome to use–not something you really want when you’re in a hurry trying to check out a long line of customers. Others are more efficient. Shop around and pick the one that works best for the people at your business who process the payments.
- Virtual terminals time out after a period of inactivity. (Or at least they should. If your employee walks away and leaves it for 20 minutes, you don’t want any old schmuck walking up and processing payments or worse yet, viewing your reports.) But when they do time out, it can be a hassle to log back in before you can check someone out, especially if you’re in a hurry. So if you have a long time between checkouts, the timeout could get in your way. Traditional credit card terminals don’t time out.
Intellivative offers both types of solutions so no matter which you option you decide on, we’d appreciate it if you would consider the Intellivative Merchant Portal (which includes a virtual terminal), one of our credit card terminals, or if you already have credit card terminals you’d like to keep using, consider using Intellivative as your payment processor.
Whichever solution you choose, best of luck to you in your business!
