"Can I process credit cards manually, or offline, using a credit card terminal?"

Would you like to...

Print this page

Email this page

Post a comment

User Opinions

0% 100% (1 vote)

---

How would you rate this answer?

Helpful

Not helpful

Thank you for rating this answer.

Short Answer:

We advise against doing so for some VERY important reasons you should be aware of:

1. This can make you and your business personally liable by the credit card companies for $500,000 if there is ever a problem.  Even without such problems, they may refuse you to allow to take credit cards ever again.
2. The significant time you can save by spending a few extra bucks a month by using a gateway will pay for itself many times over.
3. It really benefits the shopper to know that there cart was charged at the time of sale.
4. You will also save a lot of time since the gateway can verify things like the customers address, that there are sufficient funds on the card, etc...

Please contact us to see if we have any special offers on cost-effective gateway options, or possibly even check with your current terminal provider.

Detailed Explanation:

For example, let's do a simple comparison in cost savings:

Monthly cost of gateway = $15

Cost of paying someone (or value of your time) per hour = $15.  Including the time it takes to call the customer back for incorrect numbers, invalid credit cards, etc... = 20 transactions per hour.  After that point, you can see that it is more cost effective to have a gateway.

So if you are not planning on getting at least than one order per day, then it is understandable why a company would be interested in saving a few extra dollars a month.  There are also other situations where offline processing may come in useful such as complex shipping situations; however this is very unusual online.