Accept Credit Cards Without a Machine: Virtual Terminal, Invoicing, and Payment Links

Accepting credit cards without a machine is standard practice for a lot of businesses. Service providers, consultants, B2B sellers, and phone-order businesses never need a physical card reader at all. Three tools cover almost every no-hardware scenario: a virtual terminal, an invoice or payment link, and a hosted payment page.

Virtual terminal: type in the card instead of swiping it#

A virtual terminal is a secure web page where you manually key in a customer's card number, expiration date, and CVV. No hardware is required. It works over the phone, by mail order, or from your back office when a customer reads their card number to you directly. Because there's no physical card present, these are card-not-present transactions. They carry higher interchange than a chip-read sale, but for a business that never sees the card in person, a virtual terminal is often the only realistic option.

Invoicing and payment links: let the customer pay themselves#

Invoicing and pay-by-link tools send a customer a secure link by email or text. They enter their own card details on a hosted page, and the payment settles to your account. This removes you from handling card data entirely, which shrinks your PCI compliance scope significantly. It's the standard model for retainer billing, service invoices, and one-off payments where you'd rather not read a card number aloud or key it in yourself.

Hosted payment pages: for a checkout without building one#

Hosted payment pages work like an invoice link, but built into a storefront or booking flow instead of a one-off request. The payment form is hosted by the gateway, not by your own server. Card data never touches your infrastructure. That keeps you in a lighter tier of PCI DSS compliance than a self-built checkout, since the sensitive fields never route through code you maintain.

Mobile payments: no reader, but not touch-free either#

Worth separating from the no-hardware category: mobile payments using a phone or tablet reader still require hardware, just smaller and more portable than a countertop terminal. If avoiding hardware entirely is the goal — for a fully remote or phone-based business — a virtual terminal or payment link is the better fit than a mobile card reader.

Which one actually fits your business#

Use a virtual terminal for phone or mail orders where you're keying in the card yourself. Use invoicing for retainers, service work, or B2B billing where the customer should self-serve. Use a hosted payment page for a storefront or booking flow you don't want to build a custom checkout for. Many businesses end up using two of the three — a virtual terminal for phone orders and invoicing for recurring service billing, for example — settling to the same dedicated merchant account either way.