What are MOTO payments?

While taking payments over the phone or via email are no longer popular ways to complete transactions, they can still be useful in some circumstances, and the more ways you can meet the needs of your customers, the better. 

These types of transactions are known as MOTO payments, where the customer approves you to enter their card details on their behalf. 

In this article, we explain how MOTO payments work, the benefits, what to consider when implementing them. 

What is a MOTO payment?

A Mail Order/Telephone Order (MOTO) transaction is a type of card-not-present (CNP) payment where customers provide their order and payment details to the merchant through email, post, fax, or telephone. 

Once they’ve received the payment details, the merchant has to manually enter the customer’s card number and CVC code into a virtual terminal or physical card machine in order to initiate the MOTO payment. By supplying this information, the cardholder authorizes the merchant to process the transaction.

The key difference between a MOTO payment and a conventional online payment is that, instead of the customer entering their own card details at checkout, the merchant does it for them.

How does a MOTO payment work?

MOTO payments can be made using a number of different :

1. Virtual terminal - a virtual terminal is a secure online page for processing card payments. Once the customer has provided their payment details, you need to log into a virtual terminal, enter their name, address, and card information and submit the transaction request to their bank. The bank authorizes the transaction and sends you confirmation that the payment has been successful and also sends the an email receipt to the customer
2. Payment gateway - a payment gateway is another technology that can be used to take MOTO payments by securely submitting and authorizing transactions. Merchants can use payment gateways to accept both online and offline payments through a virtual or physical card terminal  
3. Card machine - merchants can also accept MOTO payments through physical card machines. The process is the same as when using a virtual terminal, except in this case, the merchant enters the customer’s card details into the physical terminal. This is particularly useful for takeaways who accept payments over the phone

Benefits of MOTO payments

The key benefits of MOTO payments are: 

• Wider reach - by accepting card payments over the phone, via post, fax, and email, you’re able to reach a much wider base of customers who may not be able to complete transactions otherwise 
• More customer convenience - giving your customers a wider variety of ways to pay gives you a greater chance of completing successful transactions 
• Easy repeat purchases - once you’ve accepted one MOTO payment from a consumer, you can securely save their card details for future purchases 
• Very accessible - you can take MOTO payments from anywhere and on any device as long as you’ve got an internet connection 

What to consider when implementing MOTO payments

If you think MOTO payments are right for your business, there are several things you should consider before implementing them:

1. Merchant account - you’ll need a merchant account to accept a MOTO payment. These accounts hold funds while transactions are authorized 
2. Card not present fees - as with any card payment, you will be charged transaction fees by processors, banks and card networks to accept MOTO payments. As they’re CNP transactions, the fees are higher than for card present transactions to account for the increased risk of fraud, though these fees vary between providers
3. Payment gateway - to ensure that your MOTO payments are processed securely, you’ll need to make use of a reputable payment gateway, which can encrypt and tokenize card details during transactions 

Which businesses can use MOTO payments?

Any business can use MOTO payments to enhance their offering to their customers. However, they are particularly useful for: 

• Takeaways - when a customer calls to place an order, using MOTO payments, it's easy to then take a payment over the phone without them having to go online to complete the purchase 
• Brick and mortar retailers - any retailer with a physical location can use MOTO payments. For example, a customer might call or email to see if you have a particular item in stock and you can then take their payment over the phone immediately instead of them having to visit your store
• Online retailers - even if you do have a secure online checkout setup, you customer may prefer to pay through email or phone  

Include MOTO payments with Checkout.com

With Checkout.com, it’s easy to accept MOTO payments. You just have to select MOTO as an option under create payment to open the form. 

Once you have entered all the required payment details, you need to submit the request. You should then be able to see the payment in the payments list after a few moments. 

MOTO payments are just one of dozens of methods that you can offer by partnering with Checkout.com. Find out how our payment processing platform can help you expand your reach and grow your customer base.