fjclaus@photographyspecialist.com (Frederick) wrote in article
<66c372d3.0307280637.10bef464@posting.google.com>:

Several ways to look at it- if this is a temporary situation, like a
fair or flea market, I'd suggest using handwritten slips and voice
authorizations and enter them on your terminal back at the store/office
later.

If it's a more permanent setup, things get bleak, at least as far as
cellphones are concerned!  No modern digital phone allows a phone line
device like a credit card machine to hook to it.  (You can hook a laptop
computer to your cellphone serially or via infrared, but then you need
to do the processing on the computer, not your Zon/Omni/whatever
terminal.)

I had a need for just this thing not too long ago, and went back to the
stone age for the setup.  I used an old analog Tandy cellphone with a
compatible Nokia "Data/Fax interface".  The analog interface allows a
"regular" phone line device (fax, CC terminal, TDD, etc.) to connect
over the analog cellular network at a blazing 4800-7200 BPS.  Too slow
for just about anything but a fax or CC terminal!  I used a Cingular
prepaid account, since Cingular will let you active an analog phone on
prepaid in any of ther service areas west of the rockies (except the
Carolinas), and their "regular" plan for analog phones was higher
($19.99 for 30 minutes, IIRC.)  Prepaid at 35-cents/min was the most
cost effective option for me- most transactions take a less than a
minute.  It's clunky and user-unfriendly (the phone must be dialed
manually- your terminal can't tell it what # to dial.  I had to program
my terminal NOT to wait for a dialtone before dialling (for obvious
reasons!), I looked up my terminal's authorization phone number in the
terminal's memory, programmed it into my cellphone and for all
transactions I had to start up the cellphone call manually- I'd swipe
the card, enter the price, dial the number on the cellphone, then press
"enter" on the terminal.  Not difficult once you get used to it.
 
So, it's time to scour eBay for a analog cell/data interface solution,
or if you want to make your life a LOT easier, and you have a long-term
need for portable authorizations, check out MerchantAnywhere.com.  They
have software that allows you do CC authorizations over the web on a
Palm or Pocket PC device, either of which will connect via your 6340.
You can even buy complete portable setups from them that include a Palm
or Pocket PC and a portable card reader/printer to be a completely
mobile merchant!  The customer's signature is captured on the handheld's
touchscreen.  Very cool stuff, but not perfect either- their software
only works if THEY are your CC processor.  You need to close your
current merchant account and use them instead.  If most of your
authorizations will be "on the road" then that might be worth it- they
charge (IIRC) $25/month plus just under 2% per transaction.

In my case, I only needed the portable setup a few months, so the
prepaid phone/analog data setup fit my budget and situation.  E-mail me
if you need more details, or make an offer for my Tandy setup since I'm
no longer using it!  ;-)  Seriously, though, check out
MerchantAnywhere.com if you have a permanent need for portable
authorizations.