card-not-present

Hi, Joe.

I think you are correct that if you can use the Authorize.Net virtual terminal to run Card Not Present transactions, our application should work fine. I am going to double check with my Authorize.Net contact to see if I’m right about that. My understanding is this:

If you’re running Card Not Present transactions on a regular Retail account instead of a MOTO (Mail Order / Telephone Order) or ECOM (ECommerce) merchant account, you typically pay the highest non-qualified rate for the transaction. The details for this obviously vary depending on your merchant account.

It’s not our intention to pressure you into signing up for an account you don’t need. It sounds like your current account will work, since the Authorize.Net virtual terminal works for you. But you may want to pay close attention to your fees, and do the math to see if it makes more sense to have a separate account. If you only intend to use Credit Card Terminal for iPhone rarely while continuing to run most of your traffic with a swipe machine, it may not make sense for you to have a dedicated Card Not Present account. But if you decide to set up an E-Commerce website for your business, it probably makes sense to get a Card Not Present account for the web site and use the same account for Credit Card Terminal.

There are a lot of different factors that come into play. If you feel like you need more information to make the right decision for your business, we’re happy to do what we can to help.

Thanks.
/rdj