MO/TO

MO/TO is short for Mail Order/Telephone Order – essentially any method of accepting orders that come through mail or over the phone (or FAX) instead of in person. The term is a subset of Card Not Present (CNP) payments, which is a wider category that also encompasses internet orders.

Mail Order/Telephone Orders allow merchants to accept remote payments in multiple ways: check, money order, or most commonly, credit cards. Customer card information can be sent through the mail (usually on an order form), given over the phone, or sent via FAX.

At one point, it was common to send cash through the mail. While it’s technically not illegal to do so in most cases, the US Postal Service strongly advises against it. It’s simply not secure.

For that matter, most resources point out that all MO/TO payment methods are less secure than sending information through a tokenized website or a peer-to-peer cash app like Zelle.

That said, MO/TO remains a viable option for non-electronic payments. The method is commonly used by mail-order retailers, subscription services, and telemarketing services