Offline credit card processing

Most days you have no issues with the services that help to keep your business’ doors open. For any merchant that accepts credit cards there is one thing that you need more than anything (besides electricity!) to keep your business functioning and that is the Internet. There will come a day when the Internet goes out. It is inevitable. It can happen because of bad weather, because of a downed line, because of a car crash or many other reasons that are out of your control. What should you do if this happens?

You need the Internet so that when a card is swiped or dipped it can connect to the processor and authorize the transaction. If the Internet is not working then obviously the card cannot be processed. At that point you might just ask the customer to come back or see if they have cash and immediately get on the phone with your ISP to figure out what is going on. You are losing money when the Internet goes out after all.

The good news for most merchants is that commercial Internet service operates on a different line than residential Internet. This means that your ISP has dedicated techs to work on it and in most cases can fix an issue that day rather than having to wait for a week for a tech to come to the home like with residential services. But that does not help you in that moment.

Many credit card processors offer offline credit card processing. There are of course risks that come with it. A credit card that is swiped may not be valid and the customer may have just walked away with some free stuff and you are on the hook for that. Of course that would have to be a heck of a coincidence with that person coming in at just the right moment but stranger things have happened. As a merchant you probably can absorb the smaller item but imagine if that happened with a more high-end item. That is the risk that you take if you utilize offline credit card processing.

There are some alternatives. A telephone line backup can be utilized but requires a dedicated analog phone line. A merchant may not want to tie up their only phone line in order to process cards but you may not have a choice. It is also still possible to call a credit card processor for manual authentication. There is a number on the card and the card can be authorized that way. Merchants can also utilize a manual card imprinter, more commonly known as the knuckle buster. While this will keep the line moving and keep the phone lines free there is no guarantee that a card is valid and the merchant can be burned by using this method.

If you really think about it, the loss of the Internet is rare but when it happens it is more than inconvenient. It can be devastating to the bottom line so it is always good to have a contingency plan in place. Hopefully you will never have to implement it but it is good to have a plan just in case. If you need any help with this or just want to talk it over with an expert then give JLE Business Consultants a call and we will be more than happy to go over your options and find a plan that will work for you.