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Cardholder Not Present Transactions

Risk awareness

Processing card payments without the cardholder being present represents additional risk for both you as a Merchant, and for your Acquirer. You should check whether or not this functionality is supported by, and has been extended to you, by your Acquirer.

You should process these transactions carefully, ensuring you capture all requested information accurately. You should also be sure to interpret the results correctly. Do not be afraid to reject a payment attempt if you are concerned it might be fraudulent.

Mail Order vs Telephone Order

Cardholder Not Present transactions are often referred to as 'MOTO' which means Mail Order / Telephone Order. These two different approaches should be understood.

Telephone Order

As the name suggests, this involves inputting the Cardholder details directly into the payment terminal whilst they are being read out over a phone line or other voice communication solution. Crucially, this does not involve writing down or otherwise storing card data at any time.

As a result, this is a lower risk way of processing a Cardholder Not Present payment, and it is by far the most popular method of processing these transaction types.

Mail Order

Mail Order is a reference to the now outdated practice of having customer's send in their card information on pieces of paper. In a more modern setting, it refers to the practice of storing the cardholder's card data in any way, typically electronically. It is never acceptable to store a cardholders CSC/CVV digits, so this method involves much more risk and is much likelier to decline.

It is typically a more expensive way to process CNP payments; The higher risk means that many Acquirers will charge higher fees for this.

Processing Transactions

You should make sure that axept® PRO is logged in before starting.

StepInstructionGuidance Image
1.Select 'Payment Options' and then select Card not Present and press 'Done' as shown.
2.Enter the amount and press 'Next'.
3.Select Sale or Refund, depending on the transaction type you require.
4.Mail Order is selected by Default, so you should amend this to Telephone Order if required.

Complete each of the fields in this form in turn. Please see the Input Field Description table below for details on each value.
5.When you have completed all the fields, the terminal will check these details with the cardholders bank. They will return responses for the AVS & CSC results.

You should always reject the payment if the CSC does not match.

In this example:

CSC is Matched

House is Not Matched

Postcode is Not Supplied

In this example, you can choose to accept or reject.

The CSC should always match, but there are lots of reasons why the other results may be valid. The cardholder may have mistaken their house number, or their data may simply be incorrect at their bank.
6.When you have made your decision, the outcome will be displayed and you can choose to print the cardholder receipt.

Note that the previous screen will time out after 30s so you should check the outcome carefully.
7.axept® PRO then returns to the default Sale screen, ready for the next transaction.

Input Field Description

Throughout the entry of data into this part of the terminal, you can use the touchscreen to move the cursor. You can also of course use the the delete key if needed.

Input Field NameDescription
AmountThe amount of the Sale or Refund. This should be entered in pence, as in a regular transaction.
Card NumberThe full card number of the payment card being used.
Expiry DateThe expiry date of the payment card being used. It is entered as numbers only.
CSCThis is the 3 digit security code that is on the back of the card.

It is Mandatory to include this for any Telephone Order requests.
It should usually be left out for any Mail Order requests.
House NumberThe House Number that the payment card is registered to. Only numbers should be entered.

This should entered if it is available.
Post Code NumberThe Post Code that the payment card is registered to. Only numbers should be entered.

This should always be entered for UK Cardholders, but is not available for Cardholders who live outside the UK.
ReferenceThis is an optional field, that can be useful to help with reconciliation of payments.