With a wireless credit card machine, you can now accept credit/debit card payments anywhere, anytime. It doesn’t matter where you do the business, wireless credit card machines will provide you the flexibility to accept credit/debit cards and process a transaction.

Currently there are a number of suppliers available in the market selling wireless equipments belonging to some popular brands such as Nurit and Verifone. However, one must be really cautious while purchasing a wireless credit card terminal. Or else, you might end up buying something that is outdated and useless. Below are listed some common pitfalls observed with the buying and selling of wireless terminals.

• Expensive Machines – Currently, the most popular and widely used wireless credit card terminals are Nurit 8000 and Nurit 8000S. Depending on the model, all these machines are within the price range of $700-$900. For a refurbished version of these same terminals, the price is slightly below $700. If you are asked to pay over $1,200 for the machine, you are probably paying too much. If you look hard enough, you will find one merchant account provider that offers a Free Wireless Credit Card Terminal to nearly every business that needs one. Machine manufacturers like Lipman usually manufacture only one version of each model. So, do not get duped when somebody tells you that there in one more version of the same model.

• Outdated Equipment – In certain marketplaces such as eBay, you can even find in the listing wireless credit card terminals priced abnormally low. Avoid purchasing any of these instruments. The reason is that many of these machines operate using abandoned and outdated processing networks such as CDPD. Best examples are Nurit 3010 and Nurit 2090. Both these instruments are outdated models.

• While buying any wireless credit card machine, always enquire about the type of network used by the machine. Avoid purchasing from a seller who either doesn’t have any information about the network or is not willing to disclose details of the network.

• Wireless Processing – The most significant advantage of using a wireless credit card terminal is that it can be operated anywhere. Currently, the most commonly used network services for wireless processing is GPRS. GPRS network provides the best signal and wider coverage. In fact, GPRS network is available in almost every country that provides cellular network services. On the contrary, Mobitex and Motient are good only in certain urban areas. In fact, some of the states in US do not even have a Mobitex or Motient network. In short, best bet is to buy a latest credit card terminal such as Nurit 8000GPRS that operates on GPRS network, but can also use Mobitex or Motient wherever available.

An important fact one should remember is that the network coverage area available for wireless terminals is much lower that the coverage that is provided for cellular phones. Hence, always enquire about the coverage area before signing up for a new wireless terminal connection.