Credit Card Terminals Play A Pivotal Role In Credit Transactions

Credit card terminals are the most crucial thing in order to accept payments for goods or services that your company or business deals with. The terminals allow merchants to transmit information on the card of the consumer to the appropriate financial institution. The beginning of the transaction starts involving the terminals when a customer chooses to pay through his / her credit cards. The customer chooses the items he or she wants to buy and move it to the merchant counter for billing.

While paying through the credit card, the merchant swipes the card into the card terminals. This is basically a small device, with a small keyboard for number inputs with a small screen and magnetic stripe reader. As the card gets swiped and the amount is entered (the amount which the consumer needs to pay the merchant for a particular service or products purchased) the amount is debited from the consumer’s bank account and transferred to the merchant’s account. The procedure is same, irrespective of the fact, consumer is paying through debit card or credit card. Almost all the portals accept all the leading credit and debit cards.

What are the kinds of credit card accounts that merchants can have?

Basically there are two kinds of credit cards accounts that a merchant can have. These accounts can be determined based on the type of the business the merchant is having. The merchant swipes the card in the card terminal and gets a signature of the consumer in the piece of a paper to confirm transaction.

For retail businesses, where customers physically walks into the shop and purchases services or products he / she needs, have a “swipe” account.

For ecommerce businesses, where consumers places their orders online as well as make online payments, “keyed” account is the ideal one. For ecommerce businesses, it is wise to keep multiple payment methods to offer flexibility to their clients.

The kinds of Credit card terminal

Depending on the type of the business, a merchant is having, the kinds of card terminals varies. But all the card terminals does the same work but in a different procedure.

Traditional Terminals are the very basic and first kind of terminals in the category. These terminals come with a small display screen, a keyboard for number input and a magnetic stripe reader. These kinds of terminals are easily noticed in retails stores.

Virtual terminals are most essentially designed for the ecommerce portals. These card terminals are quite costly as compared to traditional ones. Practically they do not have any physical existence. There is some specific software, which are used to handle the functionality of these terminals. Software is used to manage transactions and to look after the authorization. In ecommerce portals, where people order online or over phone, virtual terminals are used there.

Last but not the least, among the latest developments in terminals, wireless terminals are the most hyped one. Businesses that do not have any specific location and are mobile, they can use wireless terminals.