Merchant Credit Card Services and the March of Technology

As technology has progressed over recent years, so has merchant credit card processing. This very same new technology has ensured that merchant processing has not only become more convenient for everybody, but much safer to use as well. Various merchant account providers have advanced dramatically in how they work, and authentication and verification is just a small example of what they can accomplish today. Nevertheless, technology still advances relentlessly  down the path of time and more advancements are coming to the fore; advancements that have the ability to change the way everybody conducts their business.

Once such advancement is mobile merchant credit card processing and this is mainly due to the progression of mobile technology. This method offers wonderful scope for those businesses that are constantly on the go, allowing them to accept credit card payments via their office, home or laptop computers. There are millions of businesses across the world already availing of this technology.

Next on the lists of great advancements are cell phone wallets. This technology is prevalent across Asia at the moment, where many have already taken to it in a big way. Although slow to move across the world, this technology can already be used and accepted by major banks and institutions in the West. Individuals can more or less carry out the functions they would normally associate with online banking such as checking account balances, transferring money, paying bills, etc. and this “mobile” banking has just as good security features as online banking does.

Most experts agree that within a few years, and certainly within the next five, this technology will have advanced so that individuals could get rid of their credit cards altogether and use their cell phones to make payments.

A final great advancement that we can mention here are the pocket size merchant processing terminals that are tentatively finding their way onto the market. Although portable merchant account terminals have been with us for a few years, the fact that they are quite bulky makes them an issue for businesses setting up stall at trade shows or selling from door-to-door; things of this nature. But a terminal has arrived on the market that itself is no bigger than a traditional credit card. Weighing in at under a couple of ounces, this great piece of technology can hold an x amount (usually less than a hundred) of transactions before it fills up its internal memory. All information collected on these terminals could then be uploaded by connecting to a computer, after which the user can start from scratch.

Although many will consider that merchant processing is not yet perfect, the advancement of technology at least gives hope that as things progress, credit card transactions will become easier and safer for both the business and the customer.