Taking card payments over the phone at a restaurant

A restaurant can get paid for a phone order three ways: the guest pays at pickup, staff type the card into the POS during the call, or staff text a payment link. Typed-in cards cost more: Square prints 3.5% + 15¢ and Clover 3.5% + 10¢ for them. Whichever you pick, keep card numbers off paper and security codes out of call recordings.

This guide compares the three methods with each POS's printed rates and sets out what the PCI Security Standards Council says about card data taken by phone. It is not legal or compliance advice. Your payment processor sets the rules for your account.

Which way should a restaurant take phone payment?

Method	How it works	What to watch	Start here if
Pay at pickup	The order goes in unpaid; the guest taps or inserts a card at the counter	Orders nobody collects	Most phone orders are small pickups from regulars
Card typed into the POS or virtual terminal	Staff key the card number, expiry, security code and ZIP while the guest reads them out	Higher rate, card data spoken aloud, harder chargebacks	You deliver, or you want every order paid before it fires
Payment link by text	The guest opens a link and enters the card on their own phone	The guest has to finish paying; orders can wait unpaid	You want prepayment without staff hearing card numbers

You can mix them: pay at pickup by default, prepayment for large or catering orders. Our catering phone guide covers deposits on big orders, which stay with your catering lead.

What do Toast, Square and Clover charge for a card taken by phone?

These are the rates each company prints for its own processing. Your rate may differ if you signed a custom quote.

POS	Card tapped or inserted	Card typed in	Payment link or invoice
Square (Square Free plan)	Tap, dip or swipe: 2.6% + 15¢	Manual entry: 3.5% + 15¢	Online or invoices: 3.3% + 30¢
Clover (full-service restaurant systems)	Tapped, swiped or inserted: 2.3% + 10¢	Typed in: 3.5% + 10¢	Not printed on the restaurant pricing page
Toast	Visa, Mastercard and Discover rate not printed; American Express 3.29% + 15¢	Visa, Mastercard and Discover rate not printed; American Express 3.89% + 15¢	Not printed

Square's rates come from its fee help page, which lists manual entry at 3.5% + 15¢ on the Free, Plus and Premium plans and payment links sent by text from Virtual Terminal at 3.3% + 30¢ on legacy plans. Square's Virtual Terminal page groups payment links with typed-in cards at 3.5% + 15¢, so check the rate in your Dashboard under Pricing & subscriptions before you choose links. Square's Virtual Terminal has no monthly fee.

Clover's rates are from its full-service restaurant pricing, which labels the typed-in rate "Card information typed in." Clover's Virtual Terminal page says transactions run at the keyed-in rate with no additional monthly fee, and also advertises getting started "for just $29.95/month." Ask Clover which plan that price covers.

Toast prints its American Express rates in the footnotes of its starter kit page. Its card payments FAQ says your contracted card fees are in your Toast contract. Toast also has a "Key in Credit Cards" permission that decides which employees can type card numbers into the POS. For every fee each company charges, see our Square, Clover and Toast pricing guides.

How much does typing cards in cost over a month?

A worked example with made-up inputs: 300 phone orders a month at $40 each, all paid by card, at the printed rates above. It leaves out tips, tax, plan fees and refunds.

Rate used	Fee on one $40 order	Fees on 300 orders
Square, tapped at pickup (2.6% + 15¢)	$1.19	$357.00
Square, typed in during the call (3.5% + 15¢)	$1.55	$465.00
Square, online or invoice rate (3.3% + 30¢)	$1.62	$486.00
Clover, tapped at pickup (2.3% + 10¢)	$1.02	$306.00
Clover, typed in during the call (3.5% + 10¢)	$1.50	$450.00

In this example, typing every card in costs $108.00 a month more than tapping at pickup on Square, and $144.00 more on Clover. On a $40 order, the 30¢ fixed fee is why the payment link costs more than typing on Square. Put your own order count and average ticket in and redo the sums before you decide.

What do PCI rules say about card numbers taken by phone?

The PCI Security Standards Council's guidance on telephone payments (November 2018) is written for merchants from small businesses to large call centers. Four points from it apply to a restaurant phone:

• Writing it down counts as storing it. If the person answering writes down the card details, or an answering machine captures them, the guidance says that is "storage," and the restaurant's process comes into scope for the PCI Data Security Standard.
• Paper gets shredded. If card data is ever written or printed on paper, it should be stored securely, then shredded when no longer needed.
• The security code cannot be kept. The card's security code must not be stored after the payment is authorized, even encrypted. If a call recording captures it, it has to be deleted or made unrecoverable.
• Pens and phones at the station. Where calls are not recorded and no technology stops staff hearing card numbers, the guidance suggests limiting notebooks, pens and phones that can take notes or pictures.

The guidance says it does not replace the PCI standards, and that card brands and acquirers run their own compliance programs. Ask your processor how you should confirm compliance for your phone setup. On Toast, the card payments FAQ says Toast, as payment facilitator, is responsible for your payment processing operations, including PCI compliance, and is your main contact.

How should staff type a card in over the phone?

1. Give the permission to the fewest people who need it, such as the manager and the named phone person.
2. Open the payment screen before the guest starts reading the number. Square's manual entry steps need the card number, expiry, security code and billing ZIP code.
3. Type the digits straight into the screen as the guest reads them. Do not repeat the number aloud where other guests can hear.
4. Read back the total and the last four digits only.
5. If the card is declined, ask for another card. Do not retry the same details again and again.
6. Send the receipt by text or email, and put the guest's name on the pickup ticket.
7. If your phone system records calls, ask your provider whether it can pause recording during payment, or keep payment off recorded lines.

Square's help page says chargebacks on manually entered payments are harder for merchants to contest, and suggests payment links or in-person payment where possible. That is a reason to keep typed-in cards for the orders that need prepayment.

When is pay at pickup the better default?

Pay at pickup costs less per order at the rates above, and the card is present when it is charged. The risk is an order nobody collects. Set a simple rule, such as prepayment for orders over a set amount, for delivery, or for first-time callers at the peak. That rule is our suggestion; pick the amount from your own no-show history.

Can an AI phone agent take payment?

Maple's Pro plan lists secure payment over the phone and order confirmation texts, along with phone orders into supported POS systems. Pro is $350 a month billed monthly, or $220 a month billed annually. The product page says payment methods depend on the integration, so confirm how payment works on your POS, and include an abandoned payment in your test calls. Bring your current payment rule to a demo.

Published by Maple. This AI-assisted guide combines Toast, Square and Clover pricing and help pages with PCI Security Standards Council guidance, an original decision table and a worked example with made-up inputs. It is not legal or compliance advice, and it does not report a test of any payment system.