How Pay At Table Credit Card Terminal Works?

We are living in the 21st century where technology has changed the way we used to pay in the past. Digital payment has become the present and it will be the future. Well, credit card transaction is one of the vital aspects of digital payments and we regularly do this while shopping or paying bills at restaurants.
But, you might be surprised to know that a very complex procedure runs behind every swipe. Well, before braking elaborating this complex procedure, you must know the names of participants. They are cardholder, merchant, Merchant’s bank or acquiring bank, Service provider or acquiring processor, Association member or credit card network and credit card issuer or the issuing bank. Everyone plays their own role in order to make a transaction successful.
How it Works
Pay at Table terminal is one of the fruitful outcomes of technology. Nowadays, it is being used in different stores such as restaurants, electronic stores, and many other places. It is a virtual terminal where it just takes two or three seconds to complete the transaction. However, the process is not as easy as it looks; it consists of several steps and we have made a brief breakdown of this. So, don’t forget to go through the following steps:
First Step: Authorization

In this stage, the merchant has to get approval in order to accept payment from the issuing bank. Here, how things happen:
The employee of your shop presents the pay at the table terminal in front of the customer. After that, the customer swipes or taps the credit card on to it.
Now, after the swiping, the acquiring bank gets the customer’s credit card details via an internet connection.
After that, the credit card network receives the information from the acquiring bank and then, it asks payment authorization from the customer’s issuing bank. Payment authorization consists of the credit card number, card expiration date, billing address, card security code and payment amount.
Second Step: Authentication
Here, the issuing bank checks the details provided by the customer. We have elaborated on the process below. So, have a look at it:
The issuing bank gets the payment authorization from the credit card network.
The issuing bank verifies everything such as available fund, billing, and CVV number
Based on the credit card details, the issuing bank declines or approves the transaction. It then sends the appropriate response through the same channel to the merchant.
Finally, the credit card terminal or in such case pay at the table terminal will gather all the approved authorization so that it can be processed in a batch at the end of each business day.
At last, the merchant provides customers receipt for completing the sale.
Final Step: Clearing and Settlement
In the final step, the detail of the transaction is sent to both to the cardholder and the merchant. It basically happens simultaneously in the settlement stage. We have elaborated the whole scenario below, so check it out:
At the end of each business day, the merchant sends approved or accepted authorizations in a batch to the merchant processor or acquiring bank.
The processor sends the information to the credit card network.
The credit card forwards the information to the issuing bank.
After that, the issuing bank transfers the funds. Well, it can take up to 24 to 48 hours and the bank deducts ‘interchange fee’ which is shared with the credit card network.
The credit card network pays the acquiring processor and acquiring bank their respective percentages.
The acquiring bank credits the account of the merchant for the cardholder purchase.
The issuing bank sends the information regarding the transaction to the account of the cardholder. After receiving the statement, the cardholder pays the bill.
Best Option for You
Well, you have probably understood that pay at the table is a kind of online bill payment service. If you want to avail of this service, we will suggest you go with the best. This is why we have come up with International Payment Solutions. The company offers pay at the table terminals and we have added some key features of their service below in order to give you a clear picture:
Easily Integrate With Your POS System: It can be easily integrated with your POS system and therefore, you will have all the details such as bill total, tip amounts, open tables and many more. All the information can be easily synchronized with the debit machine.check our pay at table terminals to find more information about our integration with different restaurant POS systems.
Various Ways Of Payment: Pay at the table terminal allows the customers to pay in whatever way they want. It accepts almost everything such as NFC, EMV, Google Pay, Apple pay, mobile pay and many more.
Pay at the table solution from International Payment Solutions is EMV certified and it has already got more than 4,000 installations in the USA and Canada. So, what are you waiting for? Get in touch with International Payment Solutions today.