Keep your customers in sight with remote payment options

Editor’s note: This article was updated on November 15th, 2023 and originally published on June 24th, 2020

With the pandemic reducing the opportunity for in-store payments, many businesses pivoted to offering remote payment options to their customers for the very first time.

For many, remote payments became the only way they could take payments, and while bricks-and-mortar shops became physically out of sight, this meant they weren’t out of mind with their customer base.

Today, remote payments remain popular as an additional payment avenue, with their flexibility and accessibility allowing merchants to take payments anywhere, at any time.

Whatever sector you’re in, there’s a remote payment solution to keep you close to your customers.

Remote payment solutions

Set up your card terminal for card-not-present transactions

Card terminals can be enabled to allow your business to take a payment over the phone — subject to approval from the merchant service provider. Business owners and their staff manually type the customer’s card number, expiry date and CVV code (the 3-digit code on the back of the card) into the terminal, while on the phone with the customer, to process the payment — a simple and straightforward process.

Doing this through your card terminal is ideal for taking ad hoc payments. It may be less suitable for managing a higher frequency of phone payments as this prevents the card terminal from being used to process face-to-face payments. For higher volumes of over-the-phone payments, we recommend using our virtual terminal.

Virtual Terminals

A virtual terminal is a secure online web portal that allows you and your staff to input your customer’s card details to process a payment.

In simple terms, a virtual terminal is a secure web form that can be used on a laptop or tablet. It allows you to enter card details and process payments while talking to your customers over the phone. Payments can be taken anywhere as long as you have an internet connection. Once the payment is complete, you can provide confirmation of the payment in real time.

BOIPA Collect: Turning platforms into payment opportunities

BOIPA Collect is our cashless payment system that empowers Irish businesses of all sizes to turn platforms into payment opportunities by issuing personalised payment requests by text and email. Through a secure payment environment, customers can pay quickly and easily through Collect's pay-by-link functionality.

The solution’s easy-to-navigate interface also allows businesses to track payment statuses, send reminders, issue bulk payment requests and take payments over the phone.

Easy to set up, Collect is paying off for B2B and B2C businesses by improving payment rates while reducing administrative tasks and costs associated with recovering payments. This is brightening up businesses' bottom lines and giving them back more time to do what matters.