Credit Card Processing

A MOTO (Mail Order/Telephone Order), or keyed merchant account is the term used when a merchant is not able to swipe their customers’ cards through a credit card machine. The transaction is instead keyed into a credit card terminal or a computer software program.

A keyed merchant account qualifies for a credit card processing rate slightly higher than a retail merchant account, in which the card is being physically swiped through a credit card machine. This increase in the processing rate is due to a higher security risk when processing a transaction, because the card is not necessarily present at the point of sale, and the merchant is not always able to physically verify that the customer is who they say they are.

Merchant Accounts must be set up as a keyed merchant account if the merchant is planning to key in more than 20% of their credit card transactions.

The most common terminals used for a keyed merchant account are:

• Verifone Tranz 330
• LinkPoint 3000
• LinkPoint Virtual Terminal