Using credit a card authorization form to collect payments is an outdated and non-compliant way of doing business.
I’m going to show you a better way to collect payments by turning the traditional credit card authorization form into a “card on file” form.
If your business processes customer payments through a recurring payment system (like a billing system) or you’re collecting card data to process single payments in a virtual terminal or invoicing environment then this will apply to you!
I’m giving you a link to download some authorization templates, so read on to learn about the more secure and better way to do it.
There’s a link to download the “card on file” form templates below.
Read on and watch the video to learn about why to use them and what the best practices are for collecting payments with them.
FEATURED VIDEO
Before we get to the templates, I have a quick and important disclaimer.
Due to the nature of this topic (collecting a credit card payments online through an authorization form) my suggestions should not be taken as legal advice.
I’m not a lawyer, and therefore I’m not giving legal advice.
Any text and verbiage found on these templates including the specific language should be reviewed by an attorney or used at your own discretion.
With that, these are the same forms that I’ve given out for years to my clients and they have used the templates while practicing credit card acceptance best practices.
Template #1
- You can customize the logo of course and if you want to change the header, just double click and you can open up the header section
- You can add your company information at the top
- You can change the accent colors
- You can add your specific product in here and add or remove the card brands down here at the bottom.
Template #2:
- You can customize the logo of course and if you wanna change the header, just double click here and you can open up the header section
- You can add your company information at the top
- You can change the accent colors
- You can add your specific product in here and add or remove the card brands down here at the bottom.
I won’t spend a bunch of time walking you through page customizations within Microsoft Word because this isn’t a Word tutorial.
If you have a question on how to change something or an element on the page, or something within Microsoft Word leave a comment below because maybe others do too as you can get help in the comments section.
With that, these credit card authorization forms should be pretty well set up to just change simple text and add your company name and information and use them just as they are.
That’s the whole point of a template after all!
You can use these payment authorization templates with any merchant account solution and if you’re in a position where you are using a credit card authorization form, you’re probably invoicing for services with a regular customer base, or utilizing some sort of billing plans, perhaps,… or at least that’s a high likelihood.
On a quick side note, if you’re using these card authorization forms with invoices, I have invoice templates for Microsoft Word and Google Docs invoice templates so you can download those too if you’d like.
A Better solution
So as I mentioned, I don’t actually recommend using these authorization forms the way they have traditionally been used, because there is a better, more efficient and SAFER way to collect payment these days.
The main problem with using the credit card authorization form the “old” traditional way, of course is that you are asking your customer to write their credit card down on a piece of paper and send it to you in an unsecured manner, whether that be fax, or email or mail.
When it comes to payment card security, this practice of writing credit card numbers down on paper, (or just writing them down on your computer or in email), is HIGHLY discouraged!
It increases the possibility of credit card data theft, much easier than some of the safe practices that I’m going to show you today.
So the question becomes…
How do you get the credit card on file WITHOUT having your customer write it down (in this case) on the piece of paper and send it to you.
The 2 simple ways are:
#1- you have them read it to you over the phone
You can enter the card directly into a virtual terminal portal where it is securely stored and encrypted.
Most payment gateways and payment collection software, will properly and securely store credit cards on file.
#2- you have them enter it directly into your system themselves, through the use of a hosted payment page link that is connect to your merchant account. This is the recommended method.
These types of hosted payment pages are used specifically for the purpose of storing a card on file to charge (with cardholders consent) at a future date.
There are lots of different ways to accomplish this and some of the software that you can use even let’s you put up authorization pages that simply captures cardholder information without actually charging the card!
So if you don’t have one of those systems or a page like that to use here’s 2 simple options.
You could use a software like SimplyPay or CardPointe Hosted Payment page, both can be obtained for under 20 dollars per month!
If you don’t have a way to do this, already watch this video that linked here and in the description about the 7 ways to accept credit cards without a website.
In that video and blog post I talk about different software programs that allow you to invoice and collect payments from your customers.
So one final note about the credit card authorization forms.
If you start using a hosted payment page to collect the credit card data, this form effectively becomes simply an authorization form to charge a card on file, rather than a means to collect the credit card number itself!
Then this form can be modified with instruction to simply write the “Last 4” digits of the card on file, down on this piece of paper!
Just have you customer sign your contract as step 1 one of your process and they they can still agree to a price and payment terms without writing down full credit card information on a piece of paper.
Instead, you just point them to the hosted payment page to make the payment for products or services rendered!!!
Recap & Reminders:
Important things to remember when using a credit card authorization form
You can download the templates that I talked about today and they are 100% free.
#1 – On the credit card authorization form, have your customers write down, ONLY the last four digits of the card and use a payment link or hosted payment page to collect and store the credit card on file.
#2 – Never store credit card numbers on a paper form or in paper files so if you are using this form without the use of a hosted payment page to capture credit card data, NEVER store these forms in an unsecured location.
#3 – Never ever, email full and complete credit card details through email, text, or any social media based chat
If you have questions about these authorization form templates just comment below or use this link to get in touch with myself and the BancardSales group team.
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