Featured Offer: Get a free credit card reader from Square Payments
Sign up for a free account with Square and get a complimentary card reader, point-of-sale app, and a suite of tools to run a better, more profitable business. No monthly fees required.
Virtual Terminal Credit Card Processing: Best Options For Small Businesses
Virtual terminals allow small businesses to accept payments remotely or in-person from a computer — with or without a credit card reader.
Frank has been writing about payment processing and business services since 2015. He is a retired Air Force officer and a former practicing attorney. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology from The Pennsylvania State University and a Juris Doctorate degree from the Ventura College of Law.
WRITTEN & RESEARCHED BY
Frank KehlFrank has been writing about payment processing and business services since 2015. He is a retired Air Force officer and a former practicing attorney. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology from The Pennsylvania State University and a Juris Doctorate degree from the Ventura College of Law.
Expert Contributor
Last updated onUpdated
Chris has been writing about small business topics since 2003. He has been featured in Fox Business, ABC News, Yahoo Finance, GoBankingRates, Newsweek, BizJournals, and other publications. He has a Bachelor’s of Arts in English Writing Arts from SUNY Oswego, and a Masters of Science in Interactive Media from the University of Central Florida.
REVIEWED BY
Chris MotolaChris has been writing about small business topics since 2003. He has been featured in Fox Business, ABC News, Yahoo Finance, GoBankingRates, Newsweek, BizJournals, and other publications. He has a Bachelor’s of Arts in English Writing Arts from SUNY Oswego, and a Masters of Science in Interactive Media from the University of Central Florida.
Expert Contributor
Our content reflects the editorial opinions of our experts. While our site makes money through referral partnerships, we only partner with companies that meet our standards for quality, as outlined in our independent rating and scoring system.
Virtual terminal credit card processing is essential if you need to accept credit or debit card payments when a customer isn’t physically available to swipe, dip, or tap their card.
Long favored by mail-order and telephone-order businesses, modern virtual terminals have evolved to include many additional features. They can even be a cost-effective alternative to expensive credit card terminals and point of sale (POS) systems for card-present transactions.
In this article, we’ll profile six of the best virtual terminal providers we’ve found for small businesses. Fortunately, all of them are among the best credit card processors for small businesses.
The best virtual terminal providers are also usually the best merchant service providers in general. While often proprietary, virtual terminals don’t vary much in terms of features or capabilities. Instead, you should focus your search on companies that offer flexible contracts, fair pricing, and excellent customer support.
Our top choices for virtual terminals that work well for small businesses include the following:
Why Helcim Is The Best All-Around Choice For A Virtual Terminal
Available to Canadian and US-based merchants, Helcim offers one of the lowest-cost options for payment processing that we've seen anywhere. The company's proprietary Helcim Virtual Terminal is included as a standard feature of each free account, allowing you to take remote payments over the phone, through the mail, or using the terminal's online invoicing features.
With no long-term commitment and no monthly account fee, Helcim is a great choice for seasonal and low-volume businesses that aren't taking a large number of credit card payments every day. However, higher-volume businesses will save even more with Helcim, thanks to its interchange-plus pricing.
While Helcim is one of the best all-around merchant services providers in the industry, be aware that the company does not accept high-risk merchants.
Helcim Pricing
Helcim offers some of the most extensive pricing disclosures in the industry, so you won’t have to worry about hidden fees being tacked onto your bill. Here are some details about Helcim’s pricing:
Month-to-month billing with no early termination fee
Exclusive Promo: PaymentCloud will give you $200 if they can't beat your current rate. Get Your Quote
Pros
High-risk specialists
No account setup fee
Free terminal or card reader available with account
Excellent customer support
Cons
No publicly disclosed pricing
Why PaymentCloud's Virtual Terminal Is The Best Choice For High-Risk Retail Businesses
PaymentCloud serves both low- and high-risk businesses, with a focus on the high-risk retail sector. The company offers a free credit card terminal with each account, although you can choose a card reader instead if you plan to use a virtual terminal to enter card-present transactions.
Your specific virtual terminal will be determined by your choice of payment gateway, with the company offering Authorize.Net, USAePay, and several other third-party options.
In addition to free hardware and reasonable pricing, the company provides excellent customer support after you've signed up for an account.
PaymentCloud Pricing
Like other high-risk specialists, PaymentCloud works with a wide variety of processors and banks (including some offshore options) to get your business approved for an account. As a result, there is no standardized pricing available for high-risk businesses. Instead, you’ll have to reach out to its sales department and obtain a customized quote.
Fortunately, PaymentCloud does not charge an account setup fee for the extensive underwriting process required to establish a high-risk merchant account. Here are the important facts about PaymentCloud pricing:
No application or account setup fees
$15/month account fee (low-risk businesses)
Variable monthly fee (high-risk businesses)
Interchange + 0.10%-0.50% + $0.15-$0.25 per card-not-present transaction (low-risk businesses)
Interchange + 0.05%-0.30% + $0.08-$0.10 per card-present transaction (low-risk businesses)
For high-risk merchants, PaymentCloud offers a wide variety of services at a reasonable price. While pricing and contract terms may be highly variable, all PaymentCloud merchant accounts include the following features:
Free virtual terminal from Authorize.Net, USAePay, or other compatible gateway providers
Free mobile credit card reader
Integrates with most third-party online shopping carts
Why Clover's Virtual Terminal Is The Best Choice For Remote Payments
Better known for its popular line of countertop terminals and point of sale (POS) systems, Clover also offers a fully-featured virtual terminal and does not require you to purchase any of Clover's physical devices.
Clover Virtual Terminal is ideal for businesses that mostly take payments remotely, such as over the phone or via invoice payment.
With the Clover Essentials plan, not only can you process payments using Clover's virtual terminal, but you can also send invoices that customers can pay themselves online, as well as generate sales reports, manage inventory, take payments with an (optional) mobile credit card reader, and more.
This plan also includes access to the Clover App Market, allowing you to add additional features, such as employee scheduling and appointment booking.
While we prefer to see companies offer their virtual terminals for free, the low entry price, business management features, and ability to add additional apps from the Clover App Market make the monthly fee a worthwhile trade-off for businesses that will be relying on the Clover Virtual Terminal for most (or all) of their transaction processing.
Clover Pricing
While the virtual terminal-only option requires a monthly fee, your contract is month-to-month and doesn’t include an early termination fee. If you want to add the ability to accept in-person transactions, you’ll have to purchase the Clover Go card reader. (Learn more about Clover POS pricing in our detailed guide.)
Also, note that the pricing and terms of any Clover merchant services depend on which company you sign up with. The fairness of these terms, the quality of support, and the affordability of your Clover plan can vary widely from one Clover reseller to the next. Check out our list of the best Clover merchant services providers before shopping elsewhere.
Here are the need-to-knows concerning Clover pricing. This pricing applies to customers who purchase a plan through Clover.com directly:
Keyed-in transactions: 3.5% + $0.10 per transaction
In-person transactions: 2.3% – 2.6% + $0.10% per transaction
Hardware cost: $199 – $1,799 (optional)
Some Clover apps require additional fees
Clover Features
Primary features of Clover Essentials plan (the most affordable plan that includes a virtual terminal) include the following:
Clover Virtual Terminal
Invoicing option available
Access to Clover App Market
Transaction reports
Order management
Customer management
Basic inventory management & reporting
Compatible with Clover Go card reader for in-person transactions
When To Use Clover
You want an inexpensive virtual terminal with no contract
Get a free card swiper from Square at no cost when you create a free account. Claim your card reader.
Pros
Pay-as-you-go billing
No monthly fees
Predictable flat-rate pricing
Cons
Account stability issues
Can be expensive at higher processing volumes
Why Square's Virtual Terminal Is The Best Choice For Low-Volume & Seasonal Merchants
Square has long been popular with retailers and other businesses that usually take payments in person, but the company's free virtual terminal also makes it a great option for businesses that need to take card-not-present payments via phone, mail, email, or text.
You can also use the virtual terminal for in-person sales, with or without a card reader---though if you have a card reader, you'll get lower processing fees. For in-person payments using Square Virtual Terminal, you'll need a computer (Windows or Mac) and a free Square reader or Square Terminal.
Square's Virtual Terminal is an excellent choice for small businesses that only process several thousand dollars a month in credit/debit card transactions. At higher processing volumes, the company's flat-rate pricing can actually hurt you, and you'll be better off getting a full-service merchant account.
Square Pricing
Here are some facts about Square’s pricing:
No monthly or annual fees
3.5% + $0.15 per manually keyed-in transaction
2.6% + $0.10 per swiped, dipped, or tapped transaction
6.0% + $0.30/Afterpay transaction
$299 (or $27/month for 12 months) for Square Terminal
Square Features
The Square Virtual Terminal includes the following key features:
Square Virtual Terminal included with every account at no additional cost
Supports credit/debit cards, ACH transfers, and payment links
Supports split transactions and BNPL financing via Afterpay
Integrates with Square Dashboard
Integrates with QuickBooks
Compatible with Square Reader or Square Terminal for in-person payments
Square Virtual Terminal app available for Windows or Mac
Month-to-month billing with no early termination fees
Discounted pricing for qualified nonprofit companies
Outstanding sales transparency & highly ethical business practices
Cons
Not cost-effective for businesses processing less than $10,000 per month
Does not accept most high-risk businesses
Why Dharma Merchant Services Offers The Best Virtual Terminal For Nonprofits
One of the most transparent and ethical companies in the payments processing industry, Dharma Merchant Services offers fully transparent pricing information, with all account fees, processing rates, and contract terms disclosed on the Dharma website. This saves you the hassle of having to negotiate with the company's sales team to get the best offer.
Dharma uses month-to-month billing and interchange-plus pricing exclusively and offers discounted rates to qualified nonprofits. Every Dharma merchant account comes with a free virtual terminal, which is included as a feature of the company's MX Merchant integrated payments platform.
Dharma's QuickPay virtual terminal allows you to manually key in a transaction and integrate with a customer database, so you can process sales to repeat customers even faster.
For in-person payments, you can add the AnywhereCommerce Walker CX3 Bluetooth card reader, which supports EMV, contactless, and magstripe payments.
Dharma Merchant Services Pricing
Dharma Merchant Services puts everything on the table, listing all of its pricing prominently on its website, including the following fees and rates:
$20/month account fee (eCommerce and virtual terminal businesses)
$15/month account fee (qualified nonprofits)
Interchange + 0.20% + $0.11/online or keyed-in transaction
Offers offshore merchant accounts for some international merchants
Fair pricing & excellent contract terms
Dedicated account manager for customer service
Cons
No pricing disclosures on the website
Why Durango Merchant Services Offers The Best Virtual Terminal For High-Risk eCommerce Businesses
Durango Merchant Services is one of the best companies we’ve found that specializes in serving high-risk merchants, with a particular focus on high-risk eCommerce. The company works with a wide variety of acquiring banks and payment processors to get you approved for an account, but offers its own proprietary merchant services and customer support. One of these services is the Durango Pay gateway, the company’s proprietary payment gateway.
Durango Pay includes a virtual terminal as one of its features, allowing you to accept orders and payments over the telephone, even if you don’t have a website.
You’ll get access to various features, including support for recurring billing and a customer information database. As a high-risk provider, Durango also includes a robust set of security features, including tokenization, encryption, and anti-fraud services that can flag (or even block) suspicious transactions.
Durango Merchant Services Pricing
The one downside to working with Durango — or any other high-risk provider — is that its complex relationships with its numerous back-end processors make it impossible to disclose any pricing information on its website. Instead, you’ll have to contact Durango’s in-house sales team and get a pricing quote that’s customized to your business.
Although you can expect to pay higher rates than a comparable low-risk business, the company’s prices are fair and haven’t generated any complaints from merchants:
Merchant Maverick has been researching the payment processing industry since 2009. Our writers have reviewed hundreds of credit card processors, merchant account services, and mobile payment apps, evaluating each provider carefully on several different metrics.
Weighted Rating Breakdown
Fees & Rates 35%
Contract 20%
Products & Services 15%
Sales & Advertising Transparency 15%
Customer Service 10%
User Reviews 5%
When comparing different payment processing companies and applications to one another, we consider numerous data points. Our experts start by comparing credit card processing rates, the presence of additional fees, contract length, sales practices, and the presence or absence of additional features and services, like point of sale software. Each provider is judged on its own merits and how well it stacks up to industry standards; then it is weighed against the other providers on the list.
We spend an average of 10-15 hours researching and updating each one of our lists, making sure every company or application included meets our internal standards for quality and reputation. Any list of recommended payment processors on our site might contain a mix of standard merchant accounts, third-party payment processors, mobile payment devices, and high-risk payment processors, depending on what our expert feels is the best fit for certain scenarios or business types.
For additional details about Merchant Maverick’s review and rating processes, please refer to any or all of the following methodology pages:
A virtual terminal is a web-based software application that enables credit card processing on a computer, tablet, or phone. Transactions can be manually keyed in if the physical card is not present. You can also swipe, dip, or tap cards using a compatible credit card reader and a virtual terminal.
What Kinds Of Businesses Need Virtual Terminal Payment Processing?
In general, any business where a traditional countertop terminal or point of sale (POS) system is either impractical or too expensive will find it advantageous to use a virtual terminal. Here are some examples:
Food Delivery Services: Customers can prepay over the phone before food delivery.
Remote Freelance Work: Web designers, graphic artists, writers, and other freelance or consulting businesses that work remotely can settle billing over the phone.
Local Professionals (e.g., Doctors, Attorneys, Accountants): Take payment over the phone to book clients, settle a running tab, or process from across the counter.
Auto Mechanics: Your customers can pay you over the phone and pick their car up after hours, and you can collect what’s due during regular business hours, too.
Other Delivery Services: Whether you own a local pharmacy, deliver wine and spirits, or something else, taking phone orders is an excellent option for smaller delivery-based businesses.
If none of these use cases apply to you, some situations may still arise where a virtual terminal will come in handy. Some merchants enjoy the fact that a virtual terminal enables them to forgo hardware to compensate for limited counter space. While mobile payment processing apps are also an option, some folks live and die by their laptops, so a virtual terminal makes the most sense for their business needs.
Also, merchants who typically process via swiping, dipping, or tapping may need to take payment over the phone once in a while. If you already have a credit card processor, chances are there is a virtual terminal somewhere on the dashboard with which you can manually enter credit card details through a web-based form.
4 Benefits Of Virtual Terminal Credit Card Processing
Virtual terminals offer all of the security and fraud protection features of a countertop terminal or POS system — but at a fraction of the cost. Here’s an overview of the main benefits of using a virtual terminal:
Potential Cost Savings: Because most providers include a virtual terminal for free with your account, you can put together a very low-cost alternative to spending hundreds of dollars on a countertop terminal or POS system. All you’ll usually need is a browser-equipped device with an internet connection. Because credit card processing requires very little bandwidth, it’s a great way to repurpose an old laptop or tablet. If you also need to accept card-present transactions, a card reader can usually be purchased for less than $130.
Security Features: Virtual terminals are just as secure as physical terminals or payment gateways, using the same tokenization and encryption methods to protect your customers’ card data from hackers during the transaction approval process. They also meet the same PCI compliance requirements as other payment processing devices and software. Additional security measures, such as address verification (AVS) and CVV numbers, are also available and should be used whenever appropriate.
Fraud Protection: With the rise of eCommerce, credit card fraud has become a bigger problem. The best way to avoid liability for credit card fraud is to always enter credit card information directly into the payment form and never copy the numbers down anywhere else. Of course, even with good security, sometimes breaches happen. However, if your company has a PCI-compliant virtual terminal, the liability shifts away from you if a breach occurs.
Chargeback Protection: While every business experiences the occasional chargeback, they still cost you money. Experiencing too many chargebacks, in fact, can get you labeled as a high-risk merchant. Modern virtual terminals frequently include access to automated anti-chargeback tools that can flag — and even block — suspicious transactions before they lead to a chargeback. Learning how to prevent chargebacks is essential for any business, regardless of how you accept credit/debit card payments.
What Should You Look For In A Virtual Terminal Merchant Account?
Most virtual terminal services on the market include several common features, and there isn’t much to distinguish one from the other. However, there are several not-so-standard features that you might want to look for, especially if your business needs them. These include the following:
eCheck & ACH Processing
Accepting a lot of card-not-present transactions over a virtual terminal can get pretty expensive due to the high interchange fees charged for these types of transactions. However, some providers offer the ability to accept ACH payments or echecks through their virtual terminal. Most ACH transactions are billed at flat fees (usually between $0.15 and $1.00) or as a percentage of the transaction (up to 1%). There might also be a fixed monthly fee to add this feature if it’s only offered as an optional service.
Customer Information Database
A good feature to have is the ability to store your customers’ payment method information so that they don’t have to re-enter it every time they make a purchase. Most modern payment gateways include this feature, and as virtual terminals are increasingly offered as part of a gateway or integrated payments platform, it’s easier to get this feature in your virtual terminal as well.
Recurring Billing Support
With practically everything being offered as a subscription these days, it’s important to have a recurring billing feature included with your virtual terminal. While recurring billing is increasingly offered as a standard feature at no extra cost, some providers still consider it an optional feature and charge you extra to add it to your account.
Inventory Management
It’s a good idea to ensure an item is in stock before making a sale. Most modern virtual terminals include at least a rudimentary inventory management feature, but you may need something more sophisticated if you carry a large, diverse inventory.
Security Features
Keeping your account protected from fraudsters and cyber thieves is getting harder every day. Fortunately, virtually all merchant services providers prioritize offering strong security features to protect your account (and their bottom line).
Protecting your customers’ credit card data is of the utmost importance, particularly if you’re taking it down over the telephone and manually entering it into a virtual terminal. Look for tokenization features and point-to-point (P2P) encryption at a minimum. Providers are also introducing algorithm-based security features that try to detect potentially fraudulent transactions before they happen.
Which Virtual Terminal Is Right For Your Business?
A virtual terminal is an important part of your payment acceptance strategy, regardless of whether you only occasionally need to enter a transaction manually or your business is 100% based on remote sales.
Virtual terminals offer a convenient, secure method of completing a transaction without either the customer or their payment card being physically present.
At the same time, combining a virtual terminal with a Bluetooth or USB-connected card reader can allow you to process in-person sales as well, without shelling out the money for a traditional credit card terminal.
Frank has been writing about payment processing and business services since 2015. He is a retired Air Force officer and a former practicing attorney. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology from The Pennsylvania State University and a Juris Doctorate degree from the Ventura College of Law.
Let us know how well the content on this page solved your problem today. All feedback, positive or negative, helps us to improve the way we help small businesses.
Want to help shape the future of the Merchant Maverick website? Join our testing and survey community!
By providing feedback on how we can improve, you can earn gift cards and get early access to new features.
Our Experts Recommend PaymentCloud 🏆PaymentCloud can help almost any business get approved for payment processing.Whether you're looking to save money on processing or to get approved for a merchant account, PaymentCloud can help.Get StartedAt PaymentCloud
We Want Your Feedback!
Help us to improve by providing some feedback on your experience today.
The vendors that appear on this list were chosen by subject matter experts on the basis of product quality, wide usage and availability, and positive reputation.
Merchant Maverick’s ratings are editorial in nature, and are not aggregated from user reviews. Each staff reviewer at Merchant Maverick is a subject matter expert with experience researching, testing, and evaluating small business software and services. The rating of this company or service is based on the author’s expert opinion and analysis of the product, and assessed and seconded by another subject matter expert on staff before publication. Merchant Maverick’s ratings are not influenced by affiliate partnerships.
Our unbiased reviews and content are supported in part by affiliate partnerships, and we adhere to strict guidelines to preserve editorial integrity. The editorial content on this page is not provided by any of the companies mentioned and has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities. Opinions expressed here are author’s alone.
Our Experts Recommend PaymentCloud 🏆PaymentCloud can help almost any business get approved for payment processing.Whether you're looking to save money on processing or to get approved for a merchant account, PaymentCloud can help.Get StartedAt PaymentCloud
