Take phone payments
Key the details while the customer is on the line and get an approval or decline on the spot.
Product
Virtual Terminal, Accept Card Payments by Phone, Mail & Invoice
Turn any browser into a secure payment terminal, key in a customer’s card to accept payments by phone, mail order, or invoice with no hardware. MOTO-ready, with Level 2/3 enhanced data to cut interchange on commercial cards and AI fraud screening on every keyed entry.
- MOTO-ready, no hardware
- Level 2/3 enhanced data
- AI screening on keyed entry
Answer first
When the card isn’t in front of you
Plenty of real business happens over the phone, through the mail, or against an invoice, a customer calls to place an order, reads you their card number, and expects to be done in a minute. A swipe terminal is useless for that. What you need is a way to key the card in, run it in real time, and move on. That’s a virtual terminal: a secure web page that turns the computer or tablet you already have into a card-not-present payment terminal, with no reader to buy and nothing to install.
For high-risk merchants the calculus has a second half. Keyed, card-not-present transactions are exactly where fraud concentrates, because there’s no chip or PIN proving the cardholder is who they say they are. So the right virtual terminal isn’t just a form that runs a card, it’s a form that screens the card before it runs. Ours does both: the convenience of taking payments by phone and mail, with fraud controls tuned to keyed entry so every call isn’t an open door.
What you can do with it
The full range of card-not-present collection, one screen
Process mail orders
Key card details straight off the order form, no reader, no hardware to provision.
Send an invoice link
Send a hosted payment page when you’d rather the customer enter their own card details.
Store a card on file
With consent, keep a card on file for a customer you bill repeatedly.
Refunds and voids
Run refunds and voids from the same screen without picking up the phone to anyone.
Work from anywhere
Web-based, so it runs from the office, a home desk, or a trade-show laptop, no per-device hardware.
MOTO with fraud protection
Take the legitimate phone order without eating the fraudulent one
Mail-order and telephone-order payments are a distinct transaction type the networks treat differently, precisely because the cardholder isn’t authenticated at the point of sale. On every keyed entry our terminal runs AI fraud screening, address and CVV verification, velocity and pattern checks, and the behavioral signals that flag a stolen card before it’s charged.
- AI screening on every keyed entry
- AVS, CVV, velocity and behavioral checks
- Same dispute tooling and threshold monitoring as any account
Level 2 & Level 3 for B2B
Enhanced data is where it pays for itself
If you take commercial cards, and most phone-and-invoice B2B does, the terminal’s enhanced-data support is where it pays for itself. You can pass Level 2 data (tax amount, customer code) and Level 3 data (full line-item detail, product codes, freight, duty) on eligible transactions, which qualifies commercial, corporate, and purchasing cards for lower interchange.
Keyed B2B is the single best place to capture this, because B2B card mix skews toward exactly the commercial cards that carry higher default interchange. Set the enhanced data up correctly in the terminal and the discount lands on every eligible transaction rather than getting left on the table. For full invoice-and-link workflows, this pairs with our B2B and invoice payments setup.
FAQ
Virtual terminal FAQ
What is a virtual terminal?
A virtual terminal is a secure web page where you key in a customer's card details to take a payment, no physical card reader required. It turns any computer or tablet with a browser into a payment terminal, which is how businesses accept cards over the phone, by mail order, or against an invoice. It's the standard tool for card-not-present, keyed transactions where the customer isn't standing in front of you with their card.
How do I accept credit card payments by phone?
You log into the virtual terminal, enter the amount, key in the card number, expiration, CVV, and billing address the customer reads to you, and submit. The payment runs in real time and you get an approval or decline on the spot. Because phone and mail orders are card-not-present and carry more fraud exposure than swiped transactions, a virtual terminal built for high-risk merchants includes fraud screening on the keyed entry so you're not exposed on every call.
What is MOTO payment processing?
MOTO stands for mail-order/telephone-order, payments where the card details are taken remotely and keyed in rather than swiped, dipped, or tapped. It's a card-not-present transaction type, which the networks price and risk-assess differently from in-person payments. A virtual terminal is the tool that processes MOTO transactions, and for high-risk verticals it needs fraud controls tuned to keyed entry because there's no chip or PIN to authenticate the cardholder.
Does the virtual terminal support Level 2 and Level 3 processing?
Yes. For B2B and commercial-card transactions you can pass Level 2 data (tax amount, customer code) and Level 3 data (line-item detail, product codes, freight, duty), which qualifies eligible commercial cards for lower interchange. Keyed B2B transactions are exactly where enhanced data pays off, because B2B card mix skews toward commercial cards that carry higher default interchange, so capturing Level 2/3 in the terminal can meaningfully cut your effective rate.
Can high-risk businesses use a virtual terminal?
Yes, and it's often where high-risk merchants most need fraud protection, because keyed, card-not-present transactions carry the most exposure. Our virtual terminal is built for high-risk verticals, with AI fraud screening on keyed entries, support for the MCCs that classify high-risk, and the same chargeback defense that runs across our accounts. You get the convenience of taking cards by phone and mail without taking on the fraud risk unprotected.
Related
Keep exploring
Take cards by phone, mail and invoice, securely, no hardware.
Once your account is boarded you log in and start taking payments. If you take commercial cards, tell us at onboarding so we configure Level 2/3 capture from the start.