• Face-to-face sales

• Recognising valid cards
• Card handling procedures

• Card-not-present sales

• Card-not-present security
• E-commerce
• Mobile commerce
• Mail Order and Telephone Order
• Making payments to Visa cards
• Recurring payments

Card handling procedures

To improve the customer experience, you and your staff need to be able to process card payments quickly and efficiently.

What to do when a customer presents a Visa card

a. Chip cards

Depending on the merchant’s point-of-sale-facilities, either the merchant or the cardholder handles the Visa card during the transaction.

The following process assumes that the merchant is handling the card:

1. Check the customer agrees with the transaction total
2. Insert the chip card into the reader and follow the on-screen prompts
3. Ask the customer to enter their PIN or sign the receipt. Remove the card from the terminal only when prompted to do so
4. Return the card to the customer, along with their copy of the receipt

Chip and PIN – find out more about accepting chip cards and how to get started

b. Magnetic-stripe cards

1. Check the customer agrees with the transaction total
2. Swipe the card in the terminal and follow the on-screen prompts
3. Ask the customer to sign the receipt. Compare the signature to that on the card and perform other card security checks
4. Return the card to the customer, along with their copy of the receipt

More information

Contact your acquiring bank for more information about card-handling procedures, training and education material.