Mail Order & Telephone
Order Processing
Secure MOTO payment processing for businesses that take orders and payments over the phone or by mail - without a physical card present.
Process Payments Without a Card Present
MOTO (Mail Order / Telephone Order) processing allows businesses to accept payment information over the phone or through written orders - without the customer physically presenting their card. This is essential for call centers, catalog businesses, and service companies that take bookings remotely.
ChargeAct provides MOTO merchant accounts with the right fraud controls and security measures for card-not-present environments.
Built for Service Work, Before and After the Job
Service businesses rarely collect payment at a counter. You take a deposit over the phone to hold a slot, or you finish the work and collect once the customer has seen the result - and in both cases the card is nowhere near a terminal. That is a card-not-present transaction, and running it through equipment built for in-person retail is how service businesses end up with declines, downgrades, and surcharges they never agreed to.
A MOTO merchant account is designed for exactly that gap. Take the number by phone, key it into a virtual terminal from the van or the front desk, and keep the deposit and the final balance on the same account, with the fraud controls a card-not-present environment actually needs.
Plumbers
Deposit over the phone to book the call, balance once the repair is signed off.
Electricians
Quote and collect remotely instead of driving back out for a signature.
Handymen
Take payment from the van the moment the work is finished.
Hair Salons
Card on file for prepaid packages and no-show protection.
Nail Salons
Deposits on group bookings so a cancelled party is not a lost day.
Barber Shops
Hold the chair with a deposit taken when the appointment is made.
Lash Studios
Deposit at booking, balance after the fill, on one merchant account.
High-Risk Accounts
Card-not-present volume that traditional processors decline outright.
Frequently Asked Questions
MOTO stands for Mail Order / Telephone Order: card payments taken when the cardholder is not physically present. You key the card details into a virtual terminal instead of swiping, tapping or inserting a card.
A web page where you key in card details to take a payment - effectively a card machine in your browser. It is the main tool for MOTO and needs no extra hardware.
Both are card-not-present. In e-commerce the customer enters their own details on your site; with MOTO your staff key them in. That changes which fraud tools apply and how the transaction is priced.
Usually, yes. Card-not-present transactions carry higher interchange because the card cannot be verified physically. Passing full address and CVV data keeps you on the better card-not-present rates rather than a downgraded one.
To an underwriter, yes: card-not-present means more fraud and chargeback exposure, so expect closer review and sometimes a reserve. It is routinely approved, but it needs an account set up for it.
Yes. Taking card details by phone is legal and routine across many industries. What matters is how you handle the data: a compliant virtual terminal, no written card numbers, and clear authorization from the customer.
Yes. Phone deposits are common for salons, clinics and trades. Process it as a normal MOTO sale, state the amount and your cancellation terms on the call, and send a receipt straight away.
Do not write it down. Card numbers on paper are a PCI liability and a frequent source of disputes. To charge again later, save the card through your gateway's tokenized card-on-file feature instead.
You will need evidence the cardholder authorized it: order notes, call records, delivery confirmation, a signed authorization form. Card-not-present disputes start in the cardholder's favor, so documentation captured at the time of sale is what wins.
Need a MOTO Merchant Account?
Apply today and get set up for secure mail order and telephone order processing.