Everyone around the world uses credit cards because it’s an easy way to exchange money. A lot of us need to put our money in banks so that major life decisions like taking out a loan or making an investment become much more convenient. If you are a business, you will eventually need to establish some methods to make sure that you can take credit card payment. If you do go through with this, the benefits are not only immediate but massive as well.
7 Ways to Take Credit Card Payments
1. Mag Stripe (Swipe)
Swiping is probably the easiest way for you to take credit card payments as a business. Everyone has one of these business cards, regardless of whether they are wealthy or dirt poor. It’s a necessity for most adults to have them, and all you need for them to use this is to have a machine or use your phone. There are many attachments for credit cards to be able to accept the cards that you use as a business.. Even if the credit card doesn’t have the chip that most cards are known for it will always have the mag stripe.
For a lot of the small purchases that you can make at stores, you will almost always be able to rely on one of these cards. There are times when you will be asked to type in your 4 digit pin, but this is usually up to the person who set up the card machine. Many credit cards don’t have PINs at all, but for the sake of security, you should use that option. Credit card terminals are very cheap and will do wonders for your business in making things more convenient.
2. EMV (Insert/Dip Chip)
Chips have become very popular on credit cards because it makes things slightly more convenient. For some businesses, that means they don’t have to enter the PIN number which some people are going to forget. The magstripe may wear down or get sensitive to light in some cases. If you leave it in an area where the stripe is going to get UV rays on it, it will be rendered useless. Using the chip option gives consumers the option to pay for the things they want to buy. In some cases, it can be even faster than the swipe method that many people are used to.
Though swiping is the most popular method to pay for things with your card, you should always make sure that your payment methods have a chip attachment with them. Credit card companies have been advertising the chip feature more and more which is why they are going to be more likely to use it when they come to your business. Chips also have a high success rate of accepting purchases. Once you connect it to your business, you won’t have to worry as much about the card not being accepted.
3. NFC (Near Field Communication/Tap)
In the past year contact with other surfaces has become a big issue with many people. They want to make sure that they are able to stay safe and potentially not get sick while they buy what they need. Obviously, the best way to maintain your health and not get sick would be to touch as little as possible. This is why the contactless, Near-field communication field can exist for your business. In the past year, the usage for this option has skyrocketed a lot more than what the creators had envisioned. It shows how necessary buying things can be even when there’s a fear of getting sick.
Unlike other payment methods, there isn’t much that you’re sacrificing as a customer when you use this method. There is a high success rate of everything working out if you have enough money. Generally, the customer isn’t going to get rejected as much when compared to using the swiping method. Thankfully, with the new models of credit card terminals, this feature is getting more and more common. Generally, the customer has to use the front side of their card to make a purchase. This works even if the card has been badly damaged.
4. Using a Hosted Payments Page
Over the internet, the need for different online payment methods has become very necessary. Right now, there are two big options and one of them almost has a monopoly on the options for paying online. Paypal was founded in 1998 and has become the primary option for when people who want to buy things online. The service works by taking the customers, checking or savings account, along with their credit or debit cards to pay for products or services. They can then use that information on their account to conveniently pay for items or services.
Paypal has grown so large as a business that it will take just about any currency that countries will let them have access to. It doesn’t matter if your customers are in Asia, Europe, South America, or anywhere else, Paypal makes it very easy for you to make money outside of your country. Thankfully, it’s very easy to set up if you want to run your business online. The other major option is Amazon pay. Amazon is currently one of the biggest businesses in the world and takes money from many countries. This is why Amazon Pay has become a new option and makes things very convenient for the buyer and the seller to exchange money through your business.
5. Connecting a Gateway to a Shopping Cart
Using a gateway is one of the safer, yet more time-consuming ways of accepting credit card payments online. Customers have a lot of skepticism when paying for things online because people get hacked all the time and don’t want to get caught in the crossfire. For you, doing this will be more expensive than using Amazon Pay or Paypal as a service, but the money from your sales will be a lot more secure. Once the customer spends their money at your store, their credit card is encrypted and it’s up to the bank to approve or decline the transaction.
Once the bank tells you the decision, then you get to take the money the customer has agreed to pay. It can get a bit messy if you want to keep track of tens of thousands of customers, but it’s worth it to protect their security. There is nothing more important about the relationship between you and the customer than making sure they can trust your business. It’s harder to set up, but businesses have the responsibility to make sure that their customer’s payment information is secure. Paypal has improved its security over the years but has been known to get hacked, but people who want to steal precious credit card information.
6. Over the phone
The phone is possibly the easiest way to accept credit card payments between you and other customers. Generally, when the customer is making an order on something, they don’t need to enter their PIN. Unline the number that’s on the credit card, the PIN either has to be written down or memorized. Inevitably, some people are going to forget their PIN and only have the information that’s on their card. This method is the best for when you’re ordering food for delivery or some other kind of service when you talk online.
There are a few flaws with this method, however, when you do use it, you will rarely run into problems when calling over the phone. The first and most major problem is not getting the credit card number that the customer is responsible for. The customer could have a slip of the tongue and say one of the numbers wrong, or you may make a mistake and enter in one of the numbers wrong. When taking in a lot of customer credit card numbers that are 16 digits long, you’re bound to make mistakes. But if that trust already exists, this is easily one of the best methods.
7. Using a virtual terminal
A virtual terminal is a sort of like a shopping cart that the customer has a lot more control over. When shopping online, these services are typically going to ask for more information for security. The internet is full of hackers and potential fraud, so this can only help customers who are responsible and aren’t doing anything shady.
Most of the time when buying something, you would just swipe a card, or insert the chip. Here, you will be asked your security code, the date the card expires, the 16 digit card number, and the name that’s printed on the card. Because these details are so secure, you get more information in return as a customer. It makes getting refunds much easier since they can prove it was actually them that made the purchase. The customer gets to put in notes that they think might be relevant for the purchase before making the buy. On top of that, they get to look at what the true total is, meaning they get to see what shipping, taxes and the price of the product is altogether.
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