Manual System

This system is the least complex means of taking credit card payments from your customers over the internet. This system requires that when a customer places an order over the internet, his credit card information be taken and saved in a secure place. Later, a customer support representative manually charges the credit card using a credit card payment terminal. We do not recommend this system for an active internet business with medium to high volume of transactions.

Pros:

1. Excellent for businesses that have more of a physical presence as opposed to an internet presence (bricks and mortar type businesses).
2. No payment gateway (online credit card processors) related fees.
3. The least complex of all online credit card processing systems

Cons:

•  Time delay – Unable to authenticate credit card information at the time when the customer enters this information. Therefore, if for some reason the transaction is declined, then the user will be informed of the issue much later from the time he entered this information. Thus delaying the transaction.

•  Processing overhead – There would be extra resources required to process credit card transactions. A customer service representative has to manually charge the credit cards.

•  High error probability – Since a customer service representative will be manually charging the credit cards, there will be a greater chance of incorrect amounts being charged due to human error.