6-4 Credit Card Processing Software

Credit Card Processing Software

Credit card processing software enables a merchant to process credit card transactions using their personal computer. PC software can be used with card present and card not present merchant accounts , but requires the use of a magnetic card reader in order to properly function with all card present applications. A magnetic card reader is a device that plugs into the computer making it possible for the merchant to swipe credit cards and perform an electronic data capture.

PC software communicates with the processor either through a standard telephone line, or through a high-speed Internet connection. If you have, or will be purchasing, software that communicates with the processor via a phone line you will need to make sure that your computer has a telephone modem that is connected to an active phone line so that the computer is able to dial out.

It is a common misconception that because PC processing software resides on a computer, it will be able to integrate with other programs on the computer such as accounting software. For the most part this is not true. Most computer processing software solutions operate independently of other programs on the host computer.

However, there are programs that have been released by major accounting software providers such as QuickBooks that are able to process credit card transactions and integrate with accounting software. Because these types of software solutions are proprietary, the rates and fees are usually substantially higher than that of normal merchant accounts, and are often enough to deter most merchants from using them.

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