Do you know everything you need to know to run a successful home based business? When you’ve chalked out the details about financial management, insurance, legal issues, marketing, taxes, professional image and more, its time to come to the question of how you plan to accept payments for your products or services. And, what about tech and office supplies? You may think nothing of buying the necessary equipment for processing credit cards, however, it is important you pick the ones that cost you less and bring you profit in the long run.

There are several similarities in the way credit cards are processed for mail order/telephone order merchants and home based merchants. For instance, both authorize transactions by punching in the credit card particulars and the other important information using the keypad of a credit card terminal. The difference is that home based businesses can actually obtain an imprint of the customer’s credit card, when the product is delivered.

The possibility of obtaining an imprint opens the doors to the ability of a card-present swipe using a portable terminal. This way the home-based merchant would be charged the lower retail-processing rate instead of the higher rate applicable to mail and phone order transactions. This is a huge benefit. Also, you do not need to use the very expensive cellular-based wireless terminal in order to do transactions at customers’ homes. Instead, any fairly compact non-wireless, printer-integrated terminal will do, which may be plugged into any power outlet and phone jack to provide a live connection.

Wireless equipment has its own benefits and is required do business at trade shows, flea markets, or similar environments where there is a lack of suitable power or access to a phone line. Also, all customers would not be comfortable with you using their telephone jack to do a transaction. In short, the three basic options available to home-based merchants to carry out transactions are:
- A MOTO rate by manual transactions;
- A retail rate by a portable terminal;
- A retail rate by a wireless terminal.