Helcim Virtual Terminal Review

Almost any device will work; the virtual terminal is compatible with both PC and Mac, as well as tablets and smartphones. Additionally, Helcim boasts a 2-day deposit time for most payments.

We tried out the Helcim virtual terminal ourselves using a free demo option. Read on for details about our experience testing it out and see screenshots of the portal in action.

Getting Started

The nice thing about the Helcim virtual terminal is that it’s very user-friendly. In our experience testing, we found that it was easy to understand what was needed and to move between different types of transactions or reports.

As you can see from this screenshot, right when you log in, you’re at the page to enter payment information for a purchase. If that’s not what you’re looking to do, a convenient drop-down lets you quickly switch to processing a refund, setting up a recurring payment, and more.

Simply fill out the information for the purchase and press "process transaction" to accept the payment.

Recurring Billing

Helcim’s recurring billing feature gives you the ability to set up customers for regular payments. While some recurring billing solutions only let you choose to bill customers weekly or monthly, Helcim adds the option to choose billing on specific days of the month. You can also choose to be notified when cards are about to expire, helping to cut down on missed recurring payments due to using out-of-date information.

Once you’ve set up your customer and selected the relevant billing period and other details, payments will be made automatically. You can view all your recurring billing customers, along with their next billing date, amount to be billed, status, and more, under the "recurring" tab along the top of the virtual terminal portal.

Payment Request Invoicing

With Helcim, you have the option of sending customers an invoice to request payment online. Your customer will be notified of the invoice and can click a link to go to a secure payments page. After your customer pays, a receipt is sent to the customer and a notification is sent to you. Additionally, you can customize the look of the payment request and determine what information the customer needs to provide.

A convenient ledger of outstanding payment requests lets you keep track of the requests you’ve sent and their status.

Other Features

In addition to the options already detailed, Helcim offers a hosted payment page, integrated shopping carts, and a card storage vault.

Hosted Payment Page

Hosted payment pages are a convenient way for you to take credit and debit cards online without compromising security. With Helcim, you can accept credit cards online with a "Pay Now" button or as part of a shopping cart checkout system. Hosted payment pages are customizable to seamlessly match your branding and website. You can even optimize the hosted checkout for mobile devices in case your customers want to pay while they’re browsing your site on their phone.

Integrated Shopping Carts

You can integrate many popular shopping carts with your Helcim virtual terminal, including Shopify, Magento, and more. Helcim maintains a list of compatible shopping carts on its website.

Card Storage Vault

The credit card storage vault offers a secure way for you to keep track of customers’ card information without opening yourself up to potential liabilities from storing information yourself. Instead, you can keep customers’ billing and shipping information in Helcim’s secure card storage vault and quickly retrieve it to process new transactions. You can also update the customer’s information as necessary, duplicate past orders, and more.

Reports

Helcim’s virtual terminal provides reporting capabilities such as transaction history and manual batch settlement details. You can use the convenient dropdown to sort transactions by approvals, declines, refunds, and more.

Security

When taking credit cards, especially online, you want to be sure that you’re doing everything you can to mitigate fraud and reduce the risk of costly hacks or customer chargebacks. Helcim is PCI Level-1 Compliant, meaning they meet the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards and have achieved recognition as a Visa and MasterCard compliant provider. Helcim also utilizes technology such as tokenization to keep sensitive card data safe from potential thieves.

Pricing

The Helcim virtual terminal is listed as a $25/month charge as of autumn 2016. Additional fees to accept credit cards apply. Helcim uses an interchange plus pricing model, the most transparent pricing available. You can get a full quote for taking credit cards with Helcim through CardFellow’s price request tool. When choosing Helcim through CardFellow, you’ll benefit from CardFellow’s protections, including no cancellation fee, a lifetime rate lock, free statement monitoring, and more.