Accepting credit cards over the phone is a necessity for businesses. Doing so can be risky, but there are measures you can take to mitigate your risk of fraud.
Taking Credit Cards Over the Phone
In the past few years, all over the world people have started switching to online transaction options. It happened because of a number of reasons. Carrying cash around is not a safe option plus there’s the problem of getting change. In India especially, it’s every shopkeeper’s favorite excuse that they don’t have change.
With this increase in only transactions, even the options have increased a lot. We have our own Paytm and PhonePe. Internationally, we have PayPal and GPay. Then there are the plain old debit and credit card transactions. The only difference that has come is in the way of accepting credit cards and debit cards. Earlier we used to just swipe it in a store, now we use them online or over the phone.
Not everyone owns a credit card but those who do always use it carefully. A credit card is used to pay for goods and services and whatever amount is spent is returned back to the card issuer with additional charges. Therefore, credit card theft occurs a lot and a reason to worry for credit card users and stores that accept credit cards.
Types of Credit Cards
These little money lending cards come in different types. You can choose any type according to your needs. Various types of credit cards are:-
- Standard Credit Cards– These are also known as plain vanilla credit cards. These cards do not offer any rewards or points to their users and are fairly very easy to use. The process is simple to understand. The credit is used up too a particular limit and then it is available again once you pay the amount. A little additional charge is applied to an outstanding balance at the end of the month.
- Balance transfer credit cards- All the credit cards can transfer balances. But with this credit card, you have to pay a very low introductory rate. Although if you want to qualify for this card, you need to have good credit.
- Rewards Credit Card- As the name suggests, this credit card gets you rewards on your purchases using a credit card. The three types of rewards credit cards cascashbpoints inintoand travel.
- Student credit cards- If you’re a first-time credit card user, this is the card for you. A student credit card carrier is understood to be the person who’s got little or no credit history of any sort. If you want to get approved for a student credit card, you need to be enrolled in an accredited 4-year university program.
- Charge Cards- These cards do not have an exact spending limit. You can spend as much as you want but you have to pay it back in full at the end of the month. If you fail to pay the amount back on time, you’ll be facing late fees or even card cancellation.
- Secured credit cards- These cards require you to pay a security deposit for your card. If you have no credit history or a damaged one at that, you can still get this card. The spending limit or the credit limit on this card is equal to your deposit money.
- Subprime credit cards- These are the worst kinds of credit cards. With extremely high-interest rates and late payment fees, these cards make their user’s life hell. If you have a bad credit history, then only this card is worth it.
- Prepaid credit cards- As the name suggests, you load a certain amount in your card and can later spend that amount whenever and wherever you want. If you finish the amount, load the card again.
- Limited purpose card- These cards can be used at certain locations only and cannot be used like other credit cards.
- Business credit cards- These cars are designed for corporate employees. They can use it only for business purposes and not for their personal use.
How to take credit cards over the phone
Now that you’ve understood different credit cards, it will be easy to learn how taking credit cards over the phone requires more attention and precautions.
When do we need to take credit cards on phone-
- If you have a delivery-based business
- If your store or restaurant is far away from the living area
- Too much work so cannot take payments by visiting the customers
- You have an online organization
- Both you and the consumer are too busy to waste time on the check or bank transfer
- The consumer doesn’t like to pay in cash
Ways to take credit cards over the phone:-
- Switch on your Point of Sale system or mobile device and put in the customer’s credit card number and other information.
- If you have a phone order, accept the payment online using a virtual terminal.
- Generate an invoice and email it to your consumer so that they can pay through their online portal.
Steps you need to take while taking credit cards over the phone are-
- Gather Information off the consumer- Whenever a consumer is paying via credit card, ask for their contact information. The information that you need to ask your consumer is
- Their full credit card number
- Their phone number
- Their email address
- Their full names as it appears on the card
- The expiration date of their credit card
- Their complete billing address with the pin code
- Their card’s CVV or security code
Do not forget to print the receipt for the customer. Also, keep this information safe in your records too, and maintain proper records.
- Be alert about the addresses- Whenever the customer provides a billing address and a delivery address, make sure they’re nearby or the same. They cannot be in two different cities or states. If that is the case, ask the customer for a valid reason. Far apart Billing and delivery addresses are a signal for fraud so ask for as much information as you can.
- Invest in a good quality POS system- The quality of your POS system is very necessary if you want to have fraud-free transactions. Make sure it has the latest security technology.
- Choose a payment processing device and a hardware vendor of good quality and which are popular in the industry. They should be of the topmost technology.
- Verify the phone number then and there only by calling the customer on it. If it’s an old customer with prior purchase history then there’s no need.
Conclusion
This digital era is a good chance for society. But unfortunately, some bad gems of our society want to abuse even the technology which was made to make our life easier. You need to be careful about where you put your money and get your money from. Be careful and attentive and you’ll never face any problem during these transactions. Credit cards are made to make our life easier and that’s how you’ll be able to use them too if you keep these points in mind.
Also Read: What is CRED app? how to earn CRED gems? CRED benefits!