Take Payments Over The Phone? Check Out These 6 Great MOTO Credit Card Processors

If your business is in a high-risk industry and you take MOTO payments, we recommend you take a look at Payment Cloud. MOTO sales, because they're classified as card-not-present sales, are inherently more prone to fraud and, therefore, riskier for the banks underwriting each transaction. Add to the fact that your business's industry is already considered high-risk, and you're very likely going to have a hard time finding a merchant account provider.

Fortunately, PaymentCloud takes an extremely hands-on approach during the initial application and underwriting process. The company works with a number of acquirers to find the ones willing to take the risk of working in your industry and pick from those to get you the best deal possible. Afterward, you receive intensive follow-up support, and the company advocates for you if you have issues with the acquirer. In fact, PaymentCloud is so good at this that the "normal risk" processors such as Stripe and Dharma Merchant Services recommend it for merchants they cannot place themselves.

PaymentCloud currently provides no pricing information on its website. Ordinarily, we don't like this practice, but it is common among high-risk merchant account providers. High-risk processing rates are exceedingly variable and will differ from one merchant to the next, so it is impractical to disclose any numbers publicly.

If you're interested in PaymentCloud, take a look at our detailed review. Note that while it's primarily a high-risk processor, the company does take regular-risk merchants as well. Despite PaymentCloud not disclosing rate information, we've been able to get some preliminary numbers from them to serve as a starting point of your negotiations. You can find these numbers in the full review.

If your business is year-round (as opposed to seasonal), you might want to check out Stax by Fattmerchant as a possibility for your processing needs. Stax is one of the few providers in the industry to offer membership (also called subscription-based) pricing. This form of pricing eliminates the percentage markup over interchange in exchange for a higher monthly subscription fee. Account fees are also consolidated into a single monthly fee, making your costs more stable and predictable.

Stax has two membership levels for payment processing: one for merchants with transaction volumes less than $5 million per year ($99/month) and one for those with more than $5 million/year (you'll need to get a quote). In addition to this membership fee, you pay a standard per-transaction fee of $0.15 per transaction for MOTO payments along with the interchange rate.

If you're a MOTO merchant, you'll also need a subscription to Stax Pay (formerly Omni), Stax's proprietary, high-quality integrated payments platform. MOTO transactions are done through a virtual terminal, which is only available through Stax Pay. Other Stax Pay features include advanced invoicing and billing, inventory management, advanced reporting features, and more. You'll also get access to a growing list of add-ons and integrations through Stax's app marketplace.

A basic Stax Pay subscription goes for $49/month and includes the virtual terminal. If you also want access to such features as Text2Pay, invoicing, and recurring billing, you'll need to sign up for one of the pricier subscription tiers ($89/month and $129/month, respectively).

Stax has no long-term contracts that would require paying an early termination fee to get out of, and it has excellent customer service. It consistently lands on a lot of our Best Of lists, so we think it's worth your consideration.

If getting a free gateway is important to you, you don't mind paying incidental fees, and your monthly transaction volume is more than $10,000 per month, then you might want to consider Dharma Merchant Services. Dharma combines expert processing industry know-how with highly ethical business practices to cater to the unique needs of small businesses, restaurants, and nonprofits.

Dharma has some of the best advertising practices and sales transparency we've seen in the industry. The company uses interchange-plus pricing exclusively, and all accounts feature month-to-month billing with no early termination fees. Dharma has no account application fees, no annual fees, and no monthly minimums. It also won't charge you any PCI compliance fees or batch fees.

Dharma advertises all of its standard rate and fee information on its website. For MOTO (virtual/eCommerce) rates, Dharma charges the following:

• $25 monthly fee
• Interchange + 0.20% + $0.11 per transaction (interchange + 0.30% + $0.11 per Amex transaction)
• Numerous incidental fees (e.g., chargebacks, etc.) — all disclosed on Dharma's website

Every account comes with Dharma's MX Merchant online access and reporting system, which includes a virtual terminal, online reporting, a customer database, a mobile processing app, and several other services. For an additional monthly fee, you can add options, such as integrated ACH payment processing, B2B processing, invoicing, and recurring billing.

If you also take payments online, Dharma offers a choice between either the NMI Gateway or Authorize.Net. Both gateways are free to set up but cost $10 per month afterward. There is also an additional $0.05 fee per transaction for any sales processed over the gateway. The NMI Gateway appears to have a few more specialized features. If you're concerned about being able to take your customer data with you if you ever switch gateway providers, the NMI Gateway may be a better choice.

You can also expect high-quality, friendly, personalized service and support from the Dharma team, who are always just a phone call away. The company contributes a portion of its profits to charity, so if you're interested in a socially-conscious company, then we strongly recommend that you consider Dharma as your next processor.

If your business processes less than $10,000 per month, you might consider Square as your MOTO processor. We typically recommend Square for stores that have physical locations. Because Square does absorb some incidental costs and gives you a free virtual terminal, it's a processor worth your consideration if your monthly transactions remain low.

Square is a third-party processor, which means that it uses a business model with some well-known pluses and minuses. Square allows a merchant to sign up quickly and start processing almost right away. It also subjects the same merchant to higher scrutiny on risky sales and might institute account holds, freezes, and terminations more often than a traditional merchant account provider. Just make sure you don't fall under Square's high-risk list, and you should have little to no issue working with this company.

According to Square's site, merchants start with a per-transaction limit of $50,000. However, going through merchant complaints from our website and other sites (such as the Better Business Bureau), many merchants encounter suspensions or terminations at a much lower threshold — some as low as the three-figure range. So keep in mind that if you go with Square, a busier-than-average month or a larger-than-average ticket size could attract unwanted attention from Square's risk department.

As to how Square charges for MOTO transactions, you pay 3.5% + $0.15 per keyed transaction. This is the most expensive type of transaction on Square. Since many consumers today have access to the internet through their smartphones, you might want to consider setting up a website to take online orders as well. Square's online processing is relatively less expensive at 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction, and your Square account comes with a free online store that syncs with your in-app inventory, including inventory counts and eCommerce integrations.

Square does not charge a monthly fee, statement fees, or monthly minimums. Square's free virtual terminal allows you to enter credit card payments from any internet-connected device with a web browser. It comes with a whole suite of other services, such as stored-card capability, invoicing, recurring billing, online ordering option, customer management, advanced analytics, numerous third-party app integrations, and an API for developers.

Despite the challenges of using a third-party processor, we still think Square is an excellent deal for merchants that are just starting up, so we continue to recommend it.

National Processing is a traditional merchant account processor that we at Merchant Maverick like very much. It is excellent at providing you with a merchant account that offers great pricing and at giving quality service overall. It has a very good MOTO offering, but nothing spectacular. We include National Processing in our list because, in case you take other forms of payment as well, it can't hurt to take a serious look at a processor that is excellent across the board.

One of the things we appreciate in a processing company is advertising transparency because we think it gives a good indication of how ethically the business is run in the first place. We're very impressed by National Processing's commitment to truth in advertising. The company has a very informative website where not only does it disclose its own interchange-plus pricing but also provides accurate examples of real interchange rates alongside standardized markups and fees. This sort of truthful disclosure is incredibly rare to find, and the meaningful explanation of actual interchange rates and a complete list of standard account fees can give you a solid understanding of exactly how you will be charged.

For an eCommerce/MOTO-focused plan, National Processing charges as follows:

• $10 per month account fee
• $5 per month gateway fee
• Interchange + 0.30% + $0.15 per transaction
• $75,000 monthly processing volume limit

If your business does more volume than this, National Processing has two other plans you can consider: one for merchants processing between $75,000 and $200,000 per month in card sales, and one for merchants processing more than $200,000 per month.

National Processing doesn't charge any account setup fees or annual fees. It also doesn't require a monthly minimum. If you don't need a free physical terminal, then you can have a contract with month-to-month billing and no early termination fee. Even if you do end up signing the version of the contract with an early termination fee, you won't have to pay if you close or sell your business. The company will also waive the fee if you get a quote with a better rate elsewhere. (This gives it a chance to match your quote, which seems fair.)

In short, National Processing is an excellent processor overall that also happens to offer a very good MOTO pricing plan. If taking MOTO payments is only a part of your business plan, National Processing is worth considering.

CDGcommerce is an eCommerce specialist, which means that the pricing its merchants use most is card-not-present transactions — the same type of transaction MOTO merchants use.

CDGcommerce offers a combination of flat-rate, interchange-plus, and membership-based pricing plans, depending on your monthly processing volume. Smaller businesses processing less than $10,000 per month will be on a flat-rate plan that, at first blush, looks like what any third-party processor might offer. Eventually, though, you will be moved to a true full-service merchant account that's far less likely to suffer a hold, freeze, or termination.

For merchants processing between $10,000 and $200,000 per month, CDGcommerce offers an interchange-plus pricing plan that represents one of the best values we've seen from any provider. Large businesses processing over $200,000 per month have access to a membership-based pricing plan that eliminates the per-transaction percentage fee in exchange for a single monthly subscription fee. For a detailed breakdown of CDGcommerce's charges, please go to our full review. The pricing is also fully disclosed on its website.

All of CDGcommmerce's contracts are month-to-month, so you can cancel at any time without penalty. CDGcommerce has also eliminated many of the excessive fees that other providers charge, including account setup fees, PCI compliance fees, and monthly minimums. Merchants who need a payment gateway can choose between CDGcommerce's proprietary Quantum Gateway, Authorize.Net, and more. A virtual terminal comes with the gateway, and, as a MOTO business, you'll definitely need it. The good news is that both the gateway and the virtual terminal are free. Finally, CDGcommerce backs everything up with excellent customer service and support.

While this is not vital to a MOTO business, CDGcommerce has a proprietary POS software called PastePay that can help you manage, among other things, invoicing, scheduling, online service signups, inventory management, donations, and recurring billing. It's free with your merchant account (except for SMS text message-based marketing promotions), and if you ever decide to leave CDGcommerce, you can continue to access PastePay for a fee.

More relevant to MOTO merchants, CDGcommerce can provide you with the Chargeback Defender software that helps you manage and deal with chargebacks and the Fraud Loss Reimbursement Plan (available for an additional fee of $10/month). Given the high fraud rate of MOTO transactions, having these services available gives you some options if you ever need them.