Best virtual terminals for small businesses in Australia

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

Quite a few payment solutions in Australia offer virtual terminals, also called MOTO (Mail Order Telephone Order) payments, but only a handful are well-suited for small businesses.

You can go many months without using the terminal, without being charged anything, 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 page is straightforward – enter the card details, payment amount and a short note to be shown in sales reports (i.e. not for 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 pick that for the payment, or start a recurring payment if you’re setting up a new regularly occurring transaction. It is also possible to record the payment in cash, gift card or other tenders, or split the transaction 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 is no requirement to submit PCI documentation with Square, but they do expect you to follow general safety check recommendations in line with PCI-DSS 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-committing option for remote payments.

The virtual terminal allows you to enter a business site (where the merchant is creating the payment), amount, contact and note about the transaction. As of yet, you cannot itemise the bill with individual amounts.

Conveniently, Zeller’s solution isn’t just for MOTO payments – merchants can use the virtual terminal page to create a payment link and send it to customers via SMS, email or copy-and-paste for sharing in any message.

There’s no extra cost for PCI-DSS compliance, just a transaction fee. When using the virtual terminal in a browser, whether it’s for a telephone payment 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 merchants entering MOTO transactions on Zeller Terminal pay less than Square users.

The virtual terminal accepts Visa, Mastercard, American Express and JCB, which covers the vast majority of cards customers use.

Users also get an online business account where payouts arrive the next day, unless they opt for 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.

As standard, virtual terminal payments cost 3.6% + $0.30 of the transaction amount for domestic transactions, while international transactions incur a large 4.6% + $0.30 fee.

A currency conversion fee of either 3 or 4% on top of the base exchange rate is applied on all plans if the payer’s account is in a non-Australian currency.

There may also be additional fees applied on certain transactions, e.g. for “card account verification” or “uncaptured” payments.

Tired of reading about PayPal fees? Maybe this virtual terminal isn’t for you. However, the platform does offer a broad range of online payment features such as recurring payments and a PayPal checkout on 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 with PayPal to discuss your requirements.

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

It can be accessed via Tyro’s own eCommerce dashboard and mobile card terminals. It’s easy enough to set up, and if you have any trouble selecting this as a payment option, Tyro’s 24/7 customer support can help you add the virtual terminal option to your 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 will determine your PCI-DSS level while onboarding. Their website lists four categories that need to be presented to be able to accept virtual terminal payments.

Any merchants operating under category 1, 2 or 3 (high transactions) will need to prove their compliance regularly, while category 4 (low transactions) only need to comply with the standard. PCI-DSS compliance support will cost extra, but the cost is not listed on the Tyro website.

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 payments solution for merchants looking to find a simple and secure way to collect and manage customer payments online.

Being run by one of Australia’s largest banks has its advantages. All major credit cards are accepted, including: Mastercard, Visa, UnionPay, American Express, Diners Club and JCB, some of which require separate agreements to accept.

PayWay Virtual Terminal allows merchants to accept payments over the phone with an instant credit card approval/decline response for credit cards. Its website portal includes a suite of modules supporting multiple payment types, such as one-off and repeat payments for regularly invoiced customers.

All settlement reports and reconciliation can be accessed remotely from a device through the PayWay Portal. The content of such reports is quite basic, and includes transaction amounts, customer reference numbers and the staff members who accepted the payment.

If you’re looking for something that can handle inventory and stock, you’ll do well to look at another more comprehensive virtual terminal.

Westpac offers customised quotes for businesses looking to start up with Virtual Terminals. Transaction fees are not listed but are based on relative turnover.

Westpac requires a comprehensive PCI-DSS compliance check for its merchants. Depending on the transaction amount, and if customer data and details are kept on site, most merchants will only be required to comply via a self-assessed questionnaire (SAQ). For virtual terminal users, this is around 80 questions long. For higher-transaction businesses, you 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 to be quite minimal in its features and rather basic. Depending on the type of retailer using it, this could be both a positive or a negative.

At its core, Mint Virtual Terminal allows you to add 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 obtain a timely certification of its systems and processes. Retailers are subject to data security audits from the Payment Networks or Mint themselves. Mint also states that merchants are responsible for ensuring that they are working with service providers that also meet compliance standards.

We should also emphasise that Mint serves a lot of travel agents, so if your business operates in this field, it might be the option for you. With extremely competitive transaction fees and no monthly fees at all, it’s a simple yet limited platform that does the basics well.

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

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 and are 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, as well as duplicate existing online orders. It should be noted that you can’t edit a draft order after it’s been marked as paid, pending, or paid-for using a customer’s billing information. The major credit cards are accepted, including Visa, Mastercard and American Express.

One of the great features of Shopify is its inventory management and reporting systems. These are well-integrated into the draft order process, affording retailers a seamless experience in creating and processing transactions with their clients’ billing information.

Transaction fees via the virtual terminal depend on whether you use Shopify Payments or another online payment gateway for ecommerce payments (there’s a choice). You’re also required to subscribe to a monthly or annual Shopify ecommerce plan for online store store features – so using the virtual terminal on its own, without monthly fees, is not possible.

Any retailer who chooses Shopify Payments as the payment system shares level 1 PCI compliance by default. This means that Shopify’s own PCI certification covers your store, shopping cart, hosting and virtual terminal. This includes ongoing on-site assessments validating compliance to continuous risk management. There are no additional costs, with compliance included as standard.

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