Credit Card Processing Solutions

Credit Card Processing Software versus
Traditional POS Terminals

For years, merchants have relied on special hardware for processing credit cards.  This equipment is referred by many as a point-of-sale terminal or authorization terminal (picture shown on left).  These terminals are placed at each workstation along with a dedicated phone line to process the credit card transactions.

What makes electronic payment processing software better to use than the old fashioned point-of-sale terminals?
For starters, a terminal typically costs around $700 to $1100 US.  A business requiring five workstations can easily spend over $5000 in equipment to process credit cards.  Because of the steep price, some businesses avoid purchasing altogether and opt to rent these devices at around $25 per unit monthly.  As with any electronic equipment that is used repeatedly, periodic maintenance fees will be necessary on these devices as well.

Secondly, each terminal requires a dedicated phone line to approve the credit card transactions.  This can quickly add up to big dollars annually if your business has a large sales group that requires credit card processing for each workstation.  

In contrast, credit card processing software (in conjunction with processors that support this feature) interfaces and approves credit cards directly over the Internet.  Only an internet connection and inexpensive modem is needed for processing the credit card transaction. The hardware involved is practically maintenance-free, and it's much faster than standard authorization terminals.

Also, since ManageMore's POS interfaces with many of the popular credit card processing software solutions, it is much easier and fool-proof to do point-of-sale transactions.  Approval codes from the credit card network are automatically recorded per transaction, and voids or partial refunds are simple to accomplish.

Let us compare the costs involved for a business with only five sales workstations:

* Based on a nationwide average of $25 monthly lease per terminal
** Based on a nationwide average of $30/monthly per phone line
*** Based on PC Charge rates (Intellicharge option would actually be FREE)

In the example above,  credit card processing software would have saved your company over $1,400.  In subsequent years, the savings would be almost $3,000 annually (as a result of already purchasing the software licenses in the prior year).

It is clear that utilizing a POS solution that takes advantage of this technology will pay for itself in a very short period of time.