MOTO and Internet Explained
Credit Card Processors divide merchant types, depending on the method in which they process their customers’ cards. Merchants that obtain customer credit card information via the Internet, by phone, fax or mail, process the cards without seeing the card are considered “MOTO” (Mail Order / Telephone Order), or strictly Internet merchants.
Examples of the types of processing techniques are as follows:
- For Internet merchants, customers go to a website to shop and purchase. When the customer has finished shopping, they enter the checkout section of the site to finalize their purchase. Credit card information is inputted, either by the customer, or the merchant, (in cases where the customer requests.) through the processing gateway built into the merchants’ website. The entire process is accomplished over the Internet. This is called “Real Time” processing.
- MOTO merchants do not process transactions through their own website, they can, however process their transactions through the Internet, using a PC, with a log in account to access a processors Gateway. MOTO merchants can also perform transaction processing through their PC, using special software to communicate with the processors. MOTO merchants can also utilize a credit card terminal to accomplish the transaction.