thread Re: Over the Phone Payment - No Virtual Terminal in Payments Troubleshooting

Over the Phone Payment - No Virtual Terminal

db122 — Sun, 21 Sep 2025 16:05:04 GMT

Is it possible to take over the phone payments by manually inputting card details without the Virtual Terminal and using the physical Square Terminal instead?

Re: Over the Phone Payment - No Virtual Terminal

k_atie — Tue, 17 Jan 2023 09:25:51 GMT

Hey @db122! Wishing you a warm welcome to the Community! I can see that this is your first post with us. 🙂

Yes, accepting payments over the phone is totally possible if you are using the Square Terminal. To do so:

Tap Keypad to enter a custom amount or tap Library and choose an item from your Item Library.
Tap Review Sale > Charge.
Tap Manual Credit Card Entry > enter your customer’s card information and click Charge.
Allow your customer to enter their phone number or email address to select a receipt option, or choose Print Receipt.
You’ll see a final screen that reads All Done after the payment completes.

If you don’t see Manual Credit Card Entry as an option under payment methods, you’ll need to enable it from your Checkout settings.

To do so:

From the navigation bar, tap ≡ More > Settings > Checkout
Tap Payment types and then enable Manual Credit Card Entry under the ‘Disabled Payment Types’ section.

Hope this helps! Let me know if you have any other questions.

Re: Over the Phone Payment - No Virtual Terminal

db122 — Tue, 17 Jan 2023 10:08:17 GMT

Thanks Skyler_. Can you confirm that this falls within Squares TOS? They mention that you can do manual card entry if the person is present but over the phone payments are heavily pushed into the virtual terminal.

Re: Over the Phone Payment - No Virtual Terminal

k_atie — Tue, 17 Jan 2023 11:14:43 GMT

Hey @db122, thanks for the reply. Yes, I can confirm that taking payments over the phone using the Square Terminal is within our Terms of Service. We also recommend checking out our Best Practices for Accepting Card Payments, which gives some guidance on minimizing the risk of disputes when taking card-not-present transactions.

Re: Over the Phone Payment - No Virtual Terminal

db122 — Tue, 17 Jan 2023 14:22:27 GMT

Thanks again! This is great news. I think I have one last question on this. Would these transactions be at 2.5%?

Re: Over the Phone Payment - No Virtual Terminal

k_atie — Tue, 17 Jan 2023 16:35:50 GMT

No problem at all, @db122! And yes, the fees are 2.5% for payments manually keyed-in to the Point of Sale app, recurring payments facilitated via Online Checkout links, Square Invoices, and Virtual Terminal. You can learn more about our fees on our support centre. 😊