Business.com aims to help business owners make informed decisions to support and grow their companies. We research and recommend products and services suitable for various business types, investing thousands of hours each year in this process.
As a business, we need to generate revenue to sustain our content. We have financial relationships with some companies we cover, earning commissions when readers purchase from our partners or share information about their needs. These relationships do not dictate our advice and recommendations. Our editorial team independently evaluates and recommends products and services based on their research and expertise. Learn more about our process and partners here.
What Is a Credit Card Imprinter?
A merchant with an imprinter is prepared for emergencies but other credit card processors offer better benefits.
Table of Contents
Credit card imprinters are now as obsolete as cassette tapes, VCRs and landline telephones. These manual devices are largely tucked away for emergencies when businesses have them on hand at all. Fortunately, there are easy ways to upgrade your payment processing capabilities to stay competitive in today’s marketplace.
Editor’s note: Looking for the right credit card processor for your business? Fill out the below questionnaire to have our vendor partners contact you about your needs.
What is a credit card imprinter?
A credit card imprinter – also known as a knuckle-buster, zip-zap machine or click-clack machine – is a manual device for recording credit card transactions using a carbon copy sales slip. Merchants used credit card imprinters before the widespread use of payment terminals made them virtually obsolete.
This Addressograph Bartizan 4850 Credit Card Imprinter would be used to copy credit card details onto sales slips in order to conduct credit card transactions before the advent of electronic credit card terminals. (Source: Bartizan)
How does a credit card imprinter work?
A credit card imprinter is a manually operated machine that makes an imprint of the face of your credit card and transfers it onto a sales receipt with multiple carbon copy pages.
During a sale, the sales representative places your credit card on top of the sales receipt and then swipes the arm over it to create an imprint of your credit card information and the merchant’s information on the receipt.
Once the imprint of your credit card is made, you sign the receipt and the sales representative rips the perforated edge, keeps the original copy and gives you the imprinted copy.
Are credit card imprinters obsolete?
Credit card imprinters are all but obsolete, but some businesses may still keep them on hand.
They can be used as:
- Backup in case of electronic outage: Credit card imprinters allow businesses to continue accepting credit cards even when there is a power outage, POS system failure, or issue with their payment processor.
- Support for a virtual terminal: Some businesses may not have access to payment processing hardware and prefer to key in the card information later at a virtual terminal.
Why you should consider upgrading from credit card imprinters
Modern payment processing offers clear advantages over credit card imprinters, including:
- Faster payments: Digital transactions are processed and authorized within seconds, allowing customers to complete purchases quickly and merchants to receive payment confirmation immediately. This contrasts sharply with imprinters, which require manual processing that can take days to complete and verify.
- Cost efficiencies: Modern payment processing eliminates the need for manual labor associated with imprinter transactions, such as physically handling carbon copies and manual data entry. Additionally, electronic processing reduces paper costs, storage expenses and the potential for human error that could lead to costly chargebacks or disputes.
- Reliability: Electronic payment processing systems operate consistently without the mechanical failures that can affect imprinters, such as worn-out rollers or alignment issues. Modern systems also include built-in redundancies and backup capabilities to ensure transactions can be processed even during technical difficulties.
- Enhanced security: Modern payment systems use encryption, tokenization, and secure data transmission protocols to protect sensitive cardholder information during transactions. These systems also comply with PCI DSS standards and include fraud detection capabilities, providing significantly better security than the vulnerable carbon copy records produced by imprinters.
- Improved record-keeping: Digital payment systems automatically generate detailed transaction records that are stored electronically, making it easy to search, sort, and retrieve payment information. This eliminates the need to manually organize and store physical carbon copies, while also providing real-time access to transaction history and comprehensive reporting capabilities.
Alternatives to manual credit card imprinters
Modern payment processors and point-of-sale (POS) systems provide a more effective alternative to manual credit card imprinters.
Credit card processing services
The best credit card processors offer hardware that makes it easy to accept payments. These include:
- Credit card terminals for swipe cards
- Card readers for EMV chip cards
- Near-field communication (NFC) card readers for Tap to Pay.
In many cases, a single credit card reader can accept all of these payment methods, and most devices can print out receipts for customers as well.
Point-of-sale (POS) systems
A POS system is a big upgrade over an imprinter. You can use the best POS systems to:
- Accept credit cards and debit cards
- Manage inventory management
- Manage employee scheduling and performance
- Integrate with leading accounting software
“Everything is connected to our business account and payments are made instantaneously,” said Chris Panteli, co-founder of Linkifi. “Credit card till roll is cheap and the system works through Wi-Fi or the telephone line.”
Julie Thompson contributed to this article. Source interviews were conducted for a previous version of this article.
