Best virtual terminals for small businesses in Australia

Need to take payments over the phone or mail order? Not sure which virtual terminal to choose?

Quite a few payment solutions in Australia offer virtual terminals – or MOTO (Mail Order Telephone Order) payments – but only a handful suits small businesses.

You can go many months without using the terminal, without being charged, and it will still be available as a complimentary feature in your Square account.

Square Virtual Terminal accepts Visa, Mastercard, American Express and JCB.

The virtual payment terminal is straightforward – enter the card details, amount and a short note for sales reports (no personal details), or itemise the bill with products from your library (or custom items), GST, discounts and variants.

If you’ve saved a customer’s card details in the system, you can select that or start a recurring payment if you’re setting up a new regularly occurring transaction.

It’s also possible to record the transaction in cash, gift card or other tenders, or split it into different payment methods.

Square really has lowered the threshold for getting started with payments, whether it’s for the point of sale, via invoicing, ecommerce or in this case a virtual terminal. With a Square account, you can take payments in any of these ways for a fixed percentage.

There’s no requirement to submit PCI documentation with Square, but they do expect you to follow general safety checks in line with regulations.

Last but not least, an instant transfer option is available for an extra 1.5% fee. This allows you to receive funds straight after each transaction. The normal, free payouts take 1-2 business days.

Best for: Small, new or seasonal businesses needing an easy, not-binding option for remote payments.

The virtual terminal allows you to enter a business location (where the merchant is creating the payment), amount, contact and note about the transaction. You can’t yet itemise the bill with individual amounts.

Zeller’s solution isn’t just for MOTO payments – merchants can use the virtual terminal page to send payment links via SMS, email or copy-and-paste.

There’s no extra cost for PCI-DSS compliance, just a transaction fee. When using the virtual terminal in a browser for telephone payments or sending a payment link, the transaction fee is 1.75% + $0.25 for both domestic and international cards.

To save money, you can also key in telephone payments on Zeller Terminal for 1.7% (without the added fixed fee) for both domestic and international cards.

Although these rates are lower than Square’s, Zeller adds a fixed fee of $0.25 to the browser-based transactions, making transaction amounts below (about) $60 more expensive. But MOTO transactions on Zeller Terminal cost less than Square’s virtual terminal.

Zeller accepts Visa, Mastercard, American Express and JCB via the virtual terminal, covering the most popular cards.

Users also get an online business account where payouts arrive the next day, unless they prefer bank account transfers the next business day.

Best for: Newly started professional services or ecommerce merchants taking large deposits or pre-payments regularly.

To cut to the chase, the costs of their virtual terminal are some of the highest for small businesses. Firstly, there’s a $25 monthly fee (GST included) for having the virtual terminal in the first place.

Domestic virtual terminal payments cost 3.6% + $0.30 of the transaction amount, while international transactions incur 4.6% + $0.30.

Add too that a currency conversion fee of 3% on top of the base exchange rate, if the payer’s card is in a foreign currency.

Additional fees may apply to certain transactions, like for “card account verification” or “uncaptured” payments. Tired of reading about PayPal fees? Maybe this virtual terminal isn’t for you.

The platform does, however, offer a broad range of online payment features such as recurring payments and a PayPal checkout for your website. If you’d like to have all this in one place, you may prefer PayPal.

To sign up, you submit an online form followed by a phone call. PayPal’s customer service is unfortunately bad in general, and it’s only available during working hours.

Best for: Online businesses using PayPal services regularly and with primarily Australia-based customers.

It’s accessed via Tyro’s eCommerce browser dashboard and EFTPOS terminals. Tyro’s 24/7 customer support can help you add the virtual terminal to your EFTPOS machine.

MOTO transactions cost more than EFTPOS transactions, but Tyro will only give out the fees after a chat to hear your requirements.

Tyro does require relevant PCI paperwork and determines your PCI-DSS level while onboarding. Certain criteria have to be met to qualify for accepting virtual terminal payments.

Merchants with high transactions will need to prove their compliance regularly, while category 4 (low transactions) businesses only need to comply with the standard. PCI-DSS compliance support will cost extra.

If you’re already involved with the Tyro ecosystem, then this Virtual Terminal would be a no-brainer. Tyro allows users to input any phone or mail orders straight into pre-existing terminals.

And while it is a company that has a strong focus on in-store retail, customers who can only phone in for a payment can do so.

Best for: Those already committed to the in-store Tyro ecosystem.

PayWay Virtual Terminal is Westpac Bank’s own secure solution for collecting and managing customer payments online.

All major credit cards are accepted, including Mastercard, Visa, UnionPay, American Express, Diners Club and JCB, some of which require separate agreements.

PayWay Virtual Terminal allows merchants to accept payments over the phone with an instant credit card approval/decline response for credit cards.

Its web portal supports multiple payment types, such as one-off and repeat payments for regularly invoiced customers.

Settlement reports and reconciliation can be accessed remotely from the PayWay Portal. The reports are quite basic, but contain transaction amounts, customer reference numbers and the staff members accepting the payment.

Frankly, if you want to handle inventory and stock, other more comprehensive virtual terminals are better.

Westpac offers customised quotes, based on turnover, for businesses looking to start up with virtual terminals.

We should note: Westpac requires a comprehensive PCI-DSS compliance check for its merchants.

Depending on the transaction amount, and if customer details are kept on site, most merchants are only required to comply via a self-assessed questionnaire (SAQ). For virtual terminal users, this is around 80 questions long.

Higher-transaction businesses may need to pay for an external assessment via an Approved Scanning Vendor (ASV) or Qualified Security Assessor (QSA).

Needless to say, using a virtual terminal through one of Australia’s biggest banks does come with a stringent set of compliance rules.

Best for: Businesses with a high turnover looking for the security of a big bank.

Compared with other virtual terminals, the Mint virtual terminal appears quite minimal and rather basic in its features. Depending on the type of retailer using it, this could be a positive or negative thing.

The virtual terminal page lets you enter card details, customer information, a reference number, sales note and surcharge.

If you want to maintain a tight ship when tracking inventory, Mint may not be what you’re looking for.

Merchants must comply with PCI-DSS and get timely certification for its systems and processes.

Retailers may be audited for data security by Payment Networks or Mint. Mint also requires merchants to ensure their service providers meet compliance standards.

Mint serves a lot of travel agents, so it could be ideal if your business is in this field. With competitive transaction fees and no monthly fees, it’s a simple, yet limited, platform that handles the basics well.

Best for: Merchants looking to cut down on fees and don’t need all the bells and whistles.

Basically, merchants can create orders for their customers, which are similar to orders that customers create for themselves. Once a payment is accepted, the draft order is finalised and converted into an official order.

Draft orders can be created in-store, online or elsewhere from a computer. They’re great for handling purchases where billing info is provided over the phone, just like other virtual terminals.

You can apply discounts, shipping, customer information and reference numbers, or duplicate existing orders. When marked as paid or pending, the draft can’t be edited.

The major credit cards are accepted, including Visa, Mastercard and American Express.

Shopify’s inventory management and reporting systems are great features. They’re well-integrated into the draft order process, making it easy for retailers to create and process transactions with customer billing information.

Transaction fees depend on whether you use Shopify Payments or another payment gateway (there’s a choice). You must also subscribe to an online store plan, so using the virtual terminal without monthly fees isn’t possible.

Retailers using Shopify Payments automatically get Level 1 PCI compliance. This means Shopify’s PCI certification covers your store, cart, hosting and virtual terminal, with ongoing on-site assessments for risk management.

There are no extra costs – compliance is included.

Best for: Online retailers with a Shopify store that occasionally requires MOTO payments.