Credit card processing with VOIP

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Mar 09, 2005 Posts: 3

There are lots of merchants either switching to or thinking about switching to VOIP. Before you do, read this. You can get VOIP for your business BUT you still need a TRUE ANALOG phone line to process your credit card transactions. I head up technical services for a credit card processor. We have gone through this about 12 times with a few of our merchants. I have been in contact with the major companies that make the credit card terminals, (Verifone, Lipman, Hypercom, Ingenico) They have all confirmed that transactions will fail on VOIP systems. As you know, VOIP drops packets of data all the time. They are so small that when you are talking on the phone, you don't notice it. With credit card transactions, if 1 packet of data is dropped, the transaction will eith fail, or you'll get a rejected batch. You can not configure a terminal to work like a computer, they don't have the technology built in them. So, whatever anyone tells you...Make sure you still reserve 1 TRUE analog line for your credit card processing. Please e-mail me with any questions. You may not be a merchant of mine, but I can still help.

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Jan 23, 2008 Posts: 3

I have a credit card processing machine (hand swiped) plugged directly into my vonage phone for months and have never had an issue.

Posts: 178 · Posted: Thu Nov 20, 2008 5:57 pm Post subject:

Any business using VoIP must already have broadband Internet access. Why in the world would any merchant who has broadband Internet access still be using an old-fashioned credit card terminal that requires an analog telephone line?

At my retail business, we accept all major credit cards using a Verifone Vx570 terminal with the ethernet interface. It is connected to the same router that supports our Vonage VoIP device. Card transactions go through at lightning speed, compared with the old dial-up terminals, and we save the cost of an analog telephone line.

Any merchant account provider who fails to support Internet-based card terminals doesn't deserve to keep its customers!

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Jan 23, 2008 Posts: 3

I agree completely! I don't even want this stinkin' machine but I have to establish a history before I can use solely a web-only terminal in my business. 4 more months to go.

I'm not sure why many businesses would still be with Vonage. I just switched from them in my office to Vocalocity and the difference in service is incredible. Professional greetings, phone trees, messages, hold music or any message you'd like, multiple extensions. It's awesome.

Posts: 178 · Posted: Sat Nov 22, 2008 2:19 am Post subject: Re: agreed

jlukas wrote:

I'm not sure why many businesses would still be with Vonage. I just switched from them in my office to Vocalocity and the difference in service is incredible.

So you're paying $39.95/month per extension of your virtual PBX? That is probably a bargain, comparable with Centrex service offered by your local telco, but way more than most small businesses pay for a small number of trunks and an on-premise PBX supporting extensions.

For my own case, my business uses four Vonage business lines, priced at 49.95 for the first line, and a little less for each additional line. Monthly cost, about $200 including tax. They connect with a PBX that supports up to 32 extensions (of which we currently use 22.) If I switched to Vocalocity, I'd pay $39.95 per extension or about $878.90/month!

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Jan 23, 2008 Posts: 3

I understand that. Vonage quality was way low so I had to switch. They just don't offer the services I need either.

I think that if you need 32 extensions you'd probably need something better than Vonage.

Posts: 178 · Posted: Sat Nov 22, 2008 6:37 pm Post subject:

I use 22 extensions, and I use 4 'trunks'. Vonage suits my needs perfectly. If I wanted to replace my PBX equipment with a network-based service, I would consider Vocalocity or Packet8 or one of the other 'Centrex-like' VoIP services, but I find the PBX far more cost-effective.

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Jun 25, 2009 Posts: 1

Thanks for your posts. They are really very cool, very wonderful.
simulationcredit

Embarassed

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Jan 05, 2010 Posts: 2

So how exactly do you process credit cards with VOIP. I have a credit card terminal that has ethernet slot (IP)???

Posts: 178

Primetime wrote:

So how exactly do you process credit cards with VOIP. I have a credit card terminal that has ethernet slot (IP)???

If your credit card terminal has ethernet, you connect it to a LAN port on your Internet router and let it connect to your merchant account provider's server that way. The fact that you also have VoIP, possibly sharing the same router, is not relevant to your question (see earlier posts in this thread).