What is a Virtual Terminal?

A Virtual Terminal is an application that can be accessed from any computer, tablet, or smartphone that can access the internet.

The web-based application is used to process credit and debit cards without the need for any kind of hardware or swipe machine.

By using a Virtual Terminal, merchants can now take orders and accept and process their credit or debit card payments by phone, fax, or mail.

Virtual Terminal applications are available from most of the largest merchant processing companies such as PayPal and Stripe.

USBSwiper Virtual Terminal

Sample of a Virtual Terminal Screen

How Does it Work?

When a merchant receives an order by phone, fax, mail, or even in person and wants to pay for the order with a credit or debit card, the merchant will log into their Virtual Terminal from any web browser on their phone, tablet, or computer.

Once logged in, the merchant can enter a single transaction or multiple transactions.

To enter a transaction, the merchant typically will enter the customer’s name, credit card number, the dollar amount of the transaction, and billing and shipping addresses (if needed).

After the merchant submits the payment, the merchant processing company (such as PayPal or Stripe) processes the transaction instantly.

If the payment is successful, the merchant account processor ie: PayPal or Strips) immediately credits the business’s merchant account for the amount paid. 

Ability to Process Payments for International Orders

Most Virtual Terminal applications will also allow payments to be processed for international orders for countries such as Australia, Canada, France, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Singapore, Spain, and the United Kingdom but may not be available in U.S. territories.

There may be additional processing fees for currency conversion and to receive payments from another country. These are called “Cross-Border Transactions”.

Please check all the information on cross-border transactions for the Virtual Terminal you decide to use.

Why Use a Virtual Terminal?

Implementing a Virtual Terminal allows merchants to:

Capture Offline Sales

Receive credit and debit card orders by phone, fax, or mail. Authorize payments, capture funds, void transactions, and issue refunds.

Save Money on Hardware and Software

Receive credit and debit card orders by phone, fax, or mail. Authorize payments, capture funds, void transactions, and issue refunds.

Ship Faster

Your merchant account provider may even automatically create a packing slip (PayPal does this.)

Receive Funds Faster and Get Reports

After the transaction is approved, the payment usually shows up in your merchant account in minutes and then can typically be set to automatically transfer to your bank account each day.

A good Virtual Terminal will have robust reporting built into it.

Ship Faster

A good Virtual Terminal will have robust reporting built into it.

Choose the level of fraud protection suitable for your business.

Address verification screening (AVS), card verification (CVV2), and more!

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