Payment Options
A Payment Ecosystem
How to Accept Credit Cards at Your Business
Start with a Merchant Account
A merchant account is your passport to accept card payments for your business, whether online, over the phone or in a face-to-face situation. The purpose of a merchant account is to enable you to accept credit card payments.
There are two basic types of merchant accounts to choose from: card-present, where both the cardholder and payment card are physically present at the point-of-sale (POS), and card-not-present, or CNP.
Card-present transactions are the norm in traditional retail environments and mobile situations where the cardholder swipes, dips or taps their card or device at the terminal and the card reader collects the data.
CNP transactions occur when the card is not physically present, as is the case with online and mail order/telephone order (MOTO) sales where cardholder information is entered manually into the system.
Diversified businesses that deal in both card present and CNP transactions will require support and pricing for both types of service.