MOTO payments, or Mail Order/Telephone Order payments, are a type of card-not-present credit or debit card transaction.
MOTO payment processing is especially common among mortgage and utility providers, although many traditional retailers, including manufacturers and distributors, accept MOTO transactions in their corporate offices and call centers as well. Because customers don’t have to make a trip to a brick-and-mortar store (if the business even has a physical presence), they’re especially convenient. However, they do require merchants to have specific MOTO processing technologies in place, in addition to the technologies they may use for card-present/retail payments and online payments.
How Does MOTO Payment Processing Work?
In a mail order scenario, the customer sends in an order by mail, providing their credit card number, expiration date, and CVV code on a printed form.
In a telephone order scenario, the customer provides their credit card information over the phone during a conversation with a sales representative or customer service agent. (Sometimes the customer enters their own card information into an IVR system, eliminating the phone agent from the process. This offers an additional level of security, as the employee does not hear the customer’s payment data.)
Once the information is received through either of these channels, the merchant manually enters the customer’s credit card details into a secure virtual terminal or a payment gateway. The terminal communicates with the respective credit card networks, who verifies the customer’s details, checks for available funds, and authorizes the transaction. If approved, the transaction proceeds, and the funds are transferred to the merchant’s account. The merchant generates a receipt for the transaction, which is then sent to the customer as confirmation of the purchase. From there, the business can then move the customer’s order into fulfillment.
What Technologies Do Businesses Need for MOTO Credit Card Processing?
What Technologies Do Businesses Need for MOTO Credit Card Processing? To accept MOTO payments, merchants need to set up a virtual terminal or payment gateway. There is typically a software component (a web-based application) and a hardware component (a desktop computer, smartphone, or tablet.) When a customer calls or mails in an order, the merchant can load the software on the hardware and start processing the payment.
MOTO Cards on File
Some MOTO solutions let merchants store cards on file. With these technologies, call center agents don’t have to enter the customer’s credit card data after the first transaction. They enter the card number, security code, and zip code the first time the customer makes a purchase; their system then creates an unencryptable token that they can store for future transactions. When they need to process another transaction or issue a refund, they can reference the token without having to manually re-enter all the data.
Integrated MOTO Payments
To speed up their MOTO transactions, merchants can integrate the payment processing function into their order entry application or ERP.
Instead of starting an order in one application, opening a separate terminal, re-entering the transaction details, and going back to the original program after the customer’s payment has been processed, they can complete all these steps as part of one single workflow. Once they’ve processed the payment in their integrated system, the transaction details are sent back to their order entry system or ERP; all their records remain in one place.
Is MOTO Credit Card Processing Secure?
The level of security depends on the technology that the merchant uses to process their payments. It’s most important to start with a PCI-compliant virtual terminal; merchants can look for a vendor on the Visa Global Registry of Service Providers to make sure the solution they are considering meets the Payment Card Industry’s Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). Remote Tokenization goes even further in securing MOTO transactions, as the merchant doesn’t have the responsibility (or the corresponding risk) of storing the physical card data.
Virtual terminals that help merchants bypass their own systems entirely can provide an additional level of security, as well as a reduction in PCI scope. When using a terminal that sends sensitive data directly to the authorization network, a business can exclude the systems that don’t touch, store, or process credit card data from their mandatory annual reporting. This can bring their audit cycle down from weeks or months to days.
Discover Curbstone’s Secure Solutions for Integrated MOTO Credit Card Processing
Whether you’re a long-time mail order/phone order merchant or starting to accept MOTO transactions for the very first time, Curbstone can help you take the stress out of credit card processing. With secure, integrated virtual terminals, we can help you process MOTO payments in real time – on the same platform you use for all of your transactions. For more information, contact us today.
