Several Wireless Credit Card Terminals are available that are compatible with most Point of Sale (POS) systems.

However, they not only vary significantly in price, but also in features, durability, and their compatibility with various POS Systems, or lack thereof.

You may find that even though most Wireless Credit Card processing handheld devices are not really cheap (with some of them anywhere between $500 to $2000 a piece), your investment in such devices provides you not only excellent ROI, they also save you a significant amount of money over time. They are worth every penny even if you were to take into consideration the easy-of-use, the flexibility, and improvements they bring to your day-to-day operations in terms of enhanced employee productivity and better customer service alone.

This document focuses on important features that you should look for, as well as certain weaknesses/flaws found in many Wireless Credit Card Terminals that you should watch out for.

Expect Following Features in Wireless Credit Card Terminals for Your POS:

• Support for Leading Wireless Networks: For better coverage and trouble-free operation through out your locations, you need Wireless Credit Card Terminals that support most of the leading wireless networks such as: Cingular's GPRS Edge wireless network, CDMA, Motient, Mobitex, and Wi-Fi networks. You may not need support for all of these; but the more, the better.
  
• Choose WiFi Compatible Terminals Over Credit Card Machines that Work Only in a few Vendor Specific Wireless Networks: Credit Card Machines that are WiFi enabled are particularly interesting because they can be interfaced with (and used in) almost all of IEEE 802.11x based Wireless LANs. As Wi-Fi and related (various 802.1x protocol based) technologies further evolve, they are expected (if not completely, at least significantly) to replace (proprietary) cellular telephone networks (such as GSM) based wireless gadgets. Such devices would also be compatible with every IEEE 802.11x standards compliant Wireless POS system. It would be in your best interest, therefore, to procure Wireless Credit Card Terminals that work in 802.11x band (2.4GHz, %GHz, 5.8GHz, etc.) of frequencies -if not natively, then at least using an expansion card.
  
• Built-in Magnetic Strip Reader: Should be a standard feature.
  
• Built-in Smart Card Reader: Should be a standard feature.
  
• Built-in Printer, Internal Pinpad, and Signature Capture Screen: Should be standard features.
  
• Compatibility with Leading Processors: You should carefully verify that the Wireless Credit Card Machine that you are considering to buy supports your processor. You ought to confirm this without fail because many credit card terminals still lack support for leading processors.
  
• Cost of Any Add-on Options Needed For Your Setup: Some of the Wireless Credit Card Readers may require you to buy one or more add-on expansion cards (SIM cards) if you need certain features that may not be built into them natively. This may very well be the case if you are to mix and match equipment from different manufacturers. Confirm with the credit card machine manufacturer that it would work with your POS system and other any associated devices that you are planning on having on your Wireless POS network.
  
• Battery Capacity: Verify that battery that comes with your Wireless Credit Card machine is capable of holding enough of charge. Many handheld terminals are equipped with batteries that do not last long. Verify actual battery charge capacity (in Ah or Ampere-hours) and whether or not it would meet your duty-cycle/usage-patterns. Also look into the type of battery charger (rapid charge vs. regular/slow charger) included, and cost of additional battery packs. The last thing you want is dead batteries in your wireless credit card terminals.
  
• Compare Wireless Credit Card Terminals Using the Following List of Features:
  
  • Processor Speed: Does it have a 32-bit microprocessor?
    
  • Memory: Does it come with 4MB/6MB/8MB/16MB or more memory?
    
  • Display Type: Does LCD display have backlighting for easy viewing in bright daylight conditions? What is the screen-resolution>
    
  • Magnetic Card Reader: Does it come with a mag card reader capable of reading Triple tracks (tracks 1, 2, 3)? Is it a unidirectional reader or a bi-directional magnetic card reader?
    
  • Primary Smart Card: Does it read ISO 7816 compliant smart cards? What about 1.8V, 3V, 5V or synchronous/asynchronous cards? Is it EMV certified?
    
  • Security Access Module (SAM) Card Reader: Does it support 1 or 3 SAMs?
    
  • Keypad: Does it have soft-function keys? Are those keys re-programmable? Are there any screen-addressable keys?
    
  • Peripheral Ports: Does it have any RS-232 ports? How about ports for PIN pads and check readers?
    
  • Printer: What is the printing speed -in terms of lines/second? How many columns? Does it need non-standard (i.e. more expensive) paper-rolls or it uses standard counter-top paper rolls?
    
  • Modem: Does it have a built-in modem? If so, what is the modem speed -i.e. baud rate?
    
  • Wireless Adapter/ WiFi-Modem: Does it have a wireless interface card built-in? If so, what protocols does it support –GSM/GPRS (900/1800 MHz or 850/1900 MHz), CDMA (800/1900 MHz) and/or IEEE 802.11x (2.4GHz, 5GHz, or 5.8GHz) protocols?
    
  • Support for Data Encryption Standards: Does it support WEP, WAP, 3DES encryption or DUKPT key management, or better? Does it use SSL for secured transactions?
    
  • Physical Attributes: Physical dimensions (LxWxH) and weight (LB) considerations.

  As you may see from the above, there are many ways in which various Wireless Credit Card Terminals can differ from one another. It is important, therefore, to compare aforementioned attributes and ascertain that your new credit terminal is going to be compatible with your setup.

Let us recap some of the important attributes that are often ignored: Compare the prices; but you should ascertain that the wireless credit card terminal that you are about to procure is fully compatible with your Point of Sale System, uses high-strength encryption keys/algorithm for security, has sufficient battery life -while on standby as well as in active use, is not cumbersome to carry around, and supports wireless network technologies (CMDA, WiFi, GPRS, etc.) that are reliably available at your locations(s).