Wireless credit card processing solutions have quickly proliferated with the coming of age of the cellular phone technology. There are two different types of wireless services - short range and long range. The short-range is for merchants, who need to accept payments at their own location but do not want to be tied up to a certain spot. It has a range of several hundred feet around a base terminal. The long-range solution requires network capability and you can take it with you and use it anywhere where, as long as there is wireless connectivity.
The risk classification of a business is based on several factors. The presence of the card at the time the payment is made is where a wireless solution plays a role and helps reduce it. If a merchant accepts card payments away from his or her office by gathering the customer payment information in a form and later enters it into a terminal or keys it into a phone, this payment mode will be immediately qualified as "high risk", without even looking at the other factors. In the case of a wireless processing solution, the customer would swipe his or her card through a card reader and the transaction will fall into the "card present" category which is the first factor that is looked at when determining the risk level. As an added benefit, the merchant saves time as there is no need for additional manual data entering.
All major credit card transaction processing providers offer a wireless service and there is also a variety of terminals to choose from as well. Although their price tags are still pretty high, they have been falling steadily. There are additional credit card processing fees that are applied to wireless solutions as well. You will be paying an additional monthly fee for every terminal that you have and an additional per transaction fee. There might be an activation fee as well.
The biggest issue, when it comes to wireless card processing, however, is the availability of the wireless signal. You need to make sure that your provider's network coverage is strong in your service area, in order to avoid unpleasant surprises.
