Terminal Provider

Payment terminal services provide merchants with the physical or virtual means to accept credit cards.

In addition to supplying terminals and card readers, many vendors also offer credit card processing. Ones who don’t often partner with processing providers to deliver full service.

There are three main types of terminal services: universal, selective, and proprietary. Universal machine providers can work with all processors or processing platforms (although not all processors will support universal terminals). Proprietary machines, on the other hand, will only work on certain processing platforms, usually the platform of their processing partner.

Proprietary credit card terminals are not only restricted to certain shopping platforms, there are limitations on which processors the merchant can use. Going with a proprietary terminal means the merchant’s choice of a processor is limited to one or perhaps two providers.