Accepting payment over the phone

I'm starting a company which will preferably be accepting payments over the phone. Merchants don't like it when the card is not physically present because there's more of a risk, therefore getting approved for virtual terminals so you can charge in this manner is less likely. However, online self-serve checkout options such as paypal, 2co, etc are very common.

That said, what's to stop me from using the online self serve checkout with the customer's information that was provided to me over the phone? In other words: I will take the customers financial information over the phone, then follow the paypal/2co checkout process as if I were the actual customer.

Obviously they can see that all transactions are coming from the same IP but would this be an immediate red flag? What if customers were coming to my place of business and filling out their information on my computer?

You should either read the TOS for PP, or, call their support for real answers. And have them send you an email confirmation if they say you can do it, for your own protection.

This is good advice. I wouldn't be surprised if merchants have a problem with it. I guess I'm looking for people who have experience operating this way.

Not possible. You are opening yourself up to all sorts of legal hassles here.

One thing is that you can never be sure that they are actually placing the order with their own details. Even if they have all the details. So when the rightful owner notices it and complains, you'll be the one who'll be in trouble.

This is the biggest reason why I would never do that amongst other reasons. I would ALWAYS let the customer do it themselves.

Having that said, there's nothing against letting customers do it while you are on the phone so you can instantly verify the payment and then send the product. That IS a way of doing it and there's no merchant who will have something against it.

There are also more complicated and expensive ways to do this. But I can't look inside your wallet and don't assume you'll have the tens of thousands to spend on investment for that.

Hope this helps.

I recommend signing up for Quickbooks Merchant Services. I have used them for over a year now and am extremely happy, and at $20/mo (not 100% sure on that price but it's something like that) I am amazed at the quality of service and support.

*We take customer payments over the phone all the time with this service and it works very well.

Thanks for the advice. If others are curious, here is 2cos policy on this:

5. Do I enter my customers? orders, use my 2Checkout.com account for phone orders or allow customers to place orders on my computer at a trade show or at my store?

2Checkout.com merchants are generally not permitted to enter orders on their own accounts. This applies to orders taken from customers over the phone and use of a 2Checkout.com account as an in-store Point Of Sale terminal or public use at a trade show or convention. However, we do make occasional exceptions to this rule. Please contact our Risk Department at [email protected] to see if we can approve your account for Virtual Terminal Services.

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twistedtrick said:

I recommend signing up for Quickbooks Merchant Services. I have used them for over a year now and am extremely happy, and at $20/mo (not 100% sure on that price but it's something like that) I am amazed at the quality of service and support.

*We take customer payments over the phone all the time with this service and it works very well.

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This looks brilliant actually. The only reason I don't do the virtual terminal with paypal is because they are notorious for screwing people over, holding funds, etc. I wonder how ituit is in these aspects?