Do you need to be able to take creditcard orders "on the move"?

If you're looking for mobile, secure credit card payment solutions, you'll either need a piece of wireless hardware (such as a card reader) or the ability to phone in your credit card orders to your merchant account provider.

Some merchant accounts will come with a "mobile credit card order processing feature", and some won't. For some it may be an optional extra. Please check with your merchant account provider for the ability to integrate phone payment processing into your account.

The main benefit of accepting telephone credit card orders is convenience... you won't have to write down the customer's credit card details and subsequently input them at a virtual terminal, or carry a laptop around and hope for a secure connection at the customer's location. Also, you and your customer will both know the order has been authorized immediately.

Even if you're not present and actively selling to the customer, they can respond to your infomercials, radio commercials or written print ads immediately and purchase by phone. The convenience of accepting mobile credit card payments will most likely result in an increase of sales in any of the above situations.

With some systems that let you process credit card phone orders you can customize the messages your potential customer will hear to include optional upsells and special offers. This "interactive voice reponse" also has the ability to increase your sales conversions.

Please note, however, that these transactions will most likely count as "cardholder not present" and will attract a higher processing fee, usually a higher percentage of the transaction. There will also be a higher fraud risk, so you need to consider that against the convenience of accepting credit card orders via telephone.