Payments glossary · Core
POS (Point of Sale)
Point of sale (POS) is where an in-person payment happens, and the system used to take it: the card terminal or device, plus the till or software that records the sale, stock and receipts.
How POS works
A card payment at the point of sale is card-present: the terminal reads the card's chip or contactless interface, or a phone or watch wallet, and sends an authorisation request to the acquirer. Because the chip generates a unique cryptogram and the customer can be verified by PIN or device biometrics, card-present payments generally carry lower fraud risk than online ones.
POS set-ups range from standalone countertop and portable terminals connected to an acquirer, to integrated systems where the terminal is linked to the till or restaurant software so amounts flow automatically, to mobile card readers and SoftPOS apps that turn an ordinary smartphone into a contactless terminal. The PCI Security Standards Council publishes security standards for these devices and apps, including the Mobile Payments on COTS (MPoC) standard for accepting payments on off-the-shelf phones, first published in November 2022.
When choosing a POS provider, compare hardware costs (purchase or rental), contract length, transaction fees, supported payment methods (cards, wallets, local schemes and QR payments), offline capability, integration with your till or booking system and how quickly funds settle. Some providers lock terminals to their own acquiring service, which can make switching harder.