Taking card payments during an internet outage

How offline mode works

Many systems, including Square, Toast and Clover, can switch to offline mode. The terminal records the card details securely, finishes the sale and sends the payment for approval once it's back online.

The catch is that nothing is approved at the time of sale. If the card turns out to be declined, expired or over its limit, you find out after the customer has left, and the sale is usually lost. Processors also set limits: how much you can take offline in total, how long you have to reconnect, and sometimes which card types can be taken offline at all.

Who carries the risk

With offline payments, the business does. That's an acceptable trade for some businesses: a coffee shop taking small payments from regulars may decide a few declines are better than turning people away. It's a much harder trade for a restaurant with $200 tables or a store selling electronics.

Decide ahead of time whether offline mode is allowed, up to what amount, and who can switch it on. Making that call in the middle of a rush is how mistakes happen.

Phone hotspots

Connecting a terminal to a phone's hotspot can work for a single device for a short time. It drops when the phone rings or moves, it drains the phone quickly, and it doesn't scale to several registers, a kitchen and a back office. It's a stopgap, not a plan.

Keeping payments approved in real time

A cellular backup connection lets terminals keep approving every card normally. Your router switches over within seconds of the main line failing, and the terminals don't know anything changed. When the main line comes back, traffic moves back automatically.

Payment traffic is tiny, so even a 10 GB plan from $88 a month covers a very busy location. If your phones, kitchen screens or other systems also need to stay up, 20 GB gives plenty of headroom.

A checklist for any business that takes cards

1. Find out from your processor or POS provider whether you have offline mode, and what its limits are.
2. Decide your policy for offline payments and write it down where staff can find it.
3. List the devices that must stay online to take payments: terminals, registers, kitchen screens, order tablets.
4. Put those devices on a backup connection so offline mode becomes a last resort instead of the plan.

Does cellular change PCI compliance?

Card payments are encrypted between the terminal and the processor whichever connection they travel over, so moving them onto a cellular backup doesn't expose card data. When the cellular connection plugs into your existing router or firewall, the same network protections apply to it as to your main line.

Your PCI obligations themselves don't change. If you complete a self-assessment questionnaire, describe the backup connection the same way you describe your main internet. Your processor or IT provider can confirm the details for your setup.

Backup internet for

• Restaurants
• Retail stores
• Convenience stores and gas stations