How Do Mobile and Wireless Credit Card Terminals Work?

Wireless terminals allow merchants to cut the cord when processing credit cards. These mobile devices have revolutionized taking payments when no phone line or corded Internet connection is available. Many merchants are wary of using these payment terminals as they are not sure how they work.
When you process a credit card with a wireless terminal, the terminal will take the customer’s card information and payment information as usual, but instead of sending it through a wireless, the terminal will broadcast this information wirelessly to the nearest cell phone tower. These signals can be sent in one of two methords, GPRS or CDMA. Depending on your merchant account and service company, you’ll want to use one the correct technology. CDMA generally used Sprint or Verizon’s towers while GPRS is designed for T-Mobile and AT&T.

Mobile credit card processing is secure. Special technology has been built into these units called encryption to protect customer’s information from being compromised. Encryption means when the payment information is sent out wireless, it is sent scrambled up in a mess of useless information to anyone who does not have the encryption key. This key, which only your merchant processor has, allows your payment to be deciphered into an understandable format so payment can be processed.
These mobile terminals can also come with other handy features such as the ability to store up to 250 transactions locally on the terminal even when no cellular signal is available. So even if you’re out in the middle of nowhere at a renaissance faire, you can process the payment for turkey legs or swords.
SaleTerminal.com has a wide range of wireless and mobile credit card terminals available such as the Verifone VX610. For a whole range of terminals, please visit our webstore.