Two different questions get asked in the same words. One is whether you can take a card payment using your phone as the terminal, which is Tap to Pay and the customer is standing in front of you. The other is whether you can take a payment from somebody reading their card number down the line, which is MOTO and the customer is not there at all. They carry completely different costs and completely different risks.
The three ways, side by side
| Method | Customer present | Who carries a fraud loss |
|---|---|---|
| Tap to Pay on your phone | Yes, card or phone tapped | The bank, in most cases |
| Payment link sent to them | No, but they authenticate | The bank, in most cases |
| MOTO, card number read aloud | No, no authentication | You |
What MOTO actually means
MOTO stands for mail order and telephone order. It is the category card schemes use for a payment where the cardholder is not present and has not authenticated themselves, and where you key the number in on their behalf.
Because nobody authenticated, a MOTO payment is exempt from the strong customer authentication rules that normally apply. That is the convenience. The cost of that convenience is that the liability shift which usually protects you does not apply, so if the payment turns out to be fraudulent the loss is generally yours rather than the bank's.
It is also not switched on by default. Taking MOTO payments needs the capability enabled on your payment account, which the provider grants after looking at your business rather than at the tick of a box.
The rules about writing the number down
Card details read over the phone fall under the PCI DSS rules, and the short version is that the number must never be written on paper, typed into a note, saved in your booking system or left on a call recording.
The only safe pattern is to key it straight into the payment form while the customer is speaking and to hold nothing afterwards. If your phone calls are recorded, the recording has to be paused across the card details or the whole recording falls into scope.
This is the part most small businesses get wrong, usually with good intentions: writing the number on a pad to enter it after the call, or keeping it on file for next time. Neither is acceptable, and both are the sort of thing that turns a single fraud into a very expensive afternoon.
Why a payment link usually wins
You can stay on the phone, send a link by text or email and have the customer pay while you are talking. It takes about the same time as reading a long card number aloud twice.
The customer authenticates with their own bank, which means the fraud liability generally sits where it normally does rather than with you. You never touch the card number, so the PCI question largely disappears. And both of you end up with a receipt.
Keep MOTO for the cases a link genuinely cannot cover, such as an elderly customer without a smartphone or an account customer settling an invoice from a landline. It is a useful fallback rather than a default.
Before you take one
- Try a payment link first, by text or email
- Check the MOTO capability is enabled on your payment account
- Key the number in live, never onto paper or into a note
- Pause any call recording across the card details
- Never store a card number to use again
- Confirm the billing address and postcode
- Send a receipt so the charge is recognised on the statement
What it costs
Card not present payments are usually priced above card present ones, because the risk is higher. Whatever you are quoted for a tap in the shop, expect the phone rate to be higher unless the provider charges one blended rate.
Youzse charges 2.5% plus 35p on card payments with the Youzse platform fee inside that rate, and applies the same rate whether the payment is taken in person, through a payment link or over the phone.
The larger cost is the one that does not appear on the statement. A single disputed MOTO payment on a £400 job costs more than a year of the rate difference, which is the real argument for sending a link.
Where to go next
How to take card payments
Rates, readers and Tap to Pay for the customer standing in front of you.
Taking deposits for appointments
The payment that stops the booking evaporating in the first place.
Youzse pricing
One card rate of 2.5% plus 35p, whether taken in person or by phone.
Youzse for business
Payment links, invoices and card payments on the phone you already carry.
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