There are different types of credit card processing terminals available in the market today. Many businessmen get confused in making decision when it comes to buying the ideal credit card processing machine for their business needs. Surprisingly,decision making process should be easy enough. All you need to do is to match your business with the credit card processing machine that you want to buy. For instance, a retail merchant, you will have to get a credit card swipe machine and are an online merchant will have to apply for a virtual terminal. A virtual terminal is an online version of credit card machines used in retail stores.



An Internet merchant account allows merchants to accept payment for their services over the phone or email. After the merchant has accepted credit cards over the Internet, he must apply for a virtual terminal and a bank or a processor, to process the credit card transactions.

A payment gateway or virtual terminal is the most secure Internet bridge between the credit card processing networks and the merchant's website. The merchant derive online credit card transactions or other payment processing methods such as electronic checks through the virtual terminal.

The virtual terminal carries out manual authorization and processing of credit cards, as well as the checking of payment transactions, from any system. You need a computer and a Internet connection for such a process. The virtual terminal is an alternative for a standard authorization terminal, and it enables business owners to process transactions without the need for a check or a credit card. All the business owners must have is the basic information from the check, credit card and the consumer to maintain the data on a computer . Unlike the POS (point of sale) terminals, virtual credit card terminals are very fast and accurate.

Other spotlight features of the virtual credit card terminals include:-

Address verification service.

Customer and merchant email notifications.

Recurring payments.

Detailed reporting capabilities.

Automatic item sub-total calculation.

Credit card swipe card option.

Automatic tax calculation.

Automatic shipping calculation.

Item discount calculator.

Billing and shipping data fields.

Coupon or rebate calculator.