How a point-of-sale payment works
The till sends the amount to the terminal. The customer taps, inserts or swipes, and the terminal reads the card data and, where the card or the amount calls for it, verifies the cardholder by PIN or on the phone. The terminal then sends an authorisation request through the acquirer and the card scheme to the issuer, and shows the answer within a second or two.
The terminal can be a countertop or portable device, a card reader paired with a phone, an unattended kiosk, or an ordinary phone running SoftPOS software.
How EU law defines the point of sale
The Interchange Fee Regulation defines the point of sale as the address of the merchant's physical premises at which the payment is initiated (Article 2(29)). For distance sales, the point of sale is the address of the fixed place of business at which the merchant conducts its business, whatever the location of the website or server. The definition matters because a card payment is cross-border where the card's issuer is in a different Member State from the point of sale.
What a point-of-sale payment needs from a platform
Terminals or a SoftPOS app tested and certified before going live, a terminal management system with a terminal ID for each device, and the same acquiring, settlement and reporting used online. Merchants that sell both in shops and online increasingly want one view of both, which is known as omnichannel.
Where a point-of-sale payment shows up in a platform
Modules that do the work
- Card acquiringCard acceptance on the phone, in store and online, through the acquirer you choose.
- Merchant onboardingBusiness sign-up, verification and underwriting, from application to first payment.
- Fraud & riskReal-time fraud scoring, limits and case management, with the risk engines you already trust.
Platforms that need it
Guides that go deeper
Where it is written
The laws and standards this page's facts come from.
General information, not legal advice: what applies to you depends on your services and your market.