Accepting Online Payments: How Does Mobile Card Processing Work?

Accepting online payments has become a major source of sales transactions for countless businesses that sell goods or services online and in person. Most retailers are familiar with traditional credit and debit methods requiring merchant accounts such as standard and wireless terminals.

Basic transmitters are still the most common way to complete business transactions today, and payment gateways for ecommerce they are by no means being phased out anytime soon. However, they may end up being left behind by the innovative new method that has burst onto the retail scene and allowed businesses to raise funds using smartphone technology.

How does it work?

Smartphone-carrying business owners now have the world of credit and debit acceptance literally in the palm of their hand. This method is subject to the same basic trading account application as other traditional terminals.

Business owners provide basic information about their company, bank account and federal tax identification number to be approved by the merchant account provider. Once the application is approved, they are prompted to log into the website, set up a virtual access point, and register which employees will be authorized to conduct transactions and process credit or debit cards.

The providers then instruct the customer to download the application (smartphone application) exclusively for business sales. Each provider supplies a list of mobile phones that are compatible with the software, which usually includes the popular Blackberry, iPhone, iPad and Droid models.

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