Every card payment taken over the phone is a risk you carry. A customer reads out 16 digits and a security code, a member of your team writes them down, and your phone system and call recordings now hold card data. That pulls people, systems and recordings into PCI DSS, the card industry’s security standard, with all the assessment, controls and audit work that follows. The alternative, “we’ll text you a link”, loses payments that should have been taken there and then.
everymessage and Paytia fix both problems. Your customers pay by card on the call itself, inbound or outbound, with our AI voice assistant or with your team, and the card number never reaches you.
In short: when it’s time to pay, the caller types their card details on their own phone keypad. Paytia captures and masks the keypad tones, so our AI voice assistant, your team and your call recordings only learn that digits were entered, never what they were. The payment goes through your own payment gateway, the result comes back within seconds, and the conversation carries straight on. It works in front of your phone system, behind it, or with no phone system at all.
Every call, every setup
Secure payments fit the way you already take calls, rather than the other way round.
- Inbound calls. Customers ring to pay a bill, settle an arrears balance, book and pay a deposit, or renew. Our AI voice assistant answers 24 hours a day, or puts them through to your team.
- Outbound calls. Our AI voice assistant or your team calls customers about overdue balances, renewals or unpaid bookings, and takes the payment there and then, instead of ending with “we’ll send you a link”.
- In front of your phone system. everymessage answers first, takes payments, and passes everything else to your existing phone system as it does today.
- Behind your phone system. Your phone system answers as normal, and sends payment calls, or a queue of them, to us.
- Completely standalone. No phone system at all? We provide the numbers, the AI voice assistant and the payment line.
It suits any business that takes money over the phone: collections and arrears, utilities, housing, bookings and deposits, subscriptions and renewals, and service desks.
Customers who’d rather message than call? Secure card payments in text, WhatsApp and web chat are coming soon.
How it works
- A customer calls your number. everymessage answers, either with our AI voice assistant or by putting the caller through to your team.
- It’s time to pay. We ask Paytia to start a secure card capture on that live call. Capture starts within a second or two of the assistant asking.
- The caller keys in their card details on their phone keypad. Paytia hears the tones and masks them, a technique known as DTMF masking. The assistant, your team and any recording only get confirmation that digits were entered.
- Paytia takes the payment through your own payment gateway, such as Stripe.
- The result comes straight back. Paytia sends the outcome to us by secure webhook, and the conversation picks up again: “Thanks, that’s gone through.”
How Paytia connects
Paytia sits in front of the call, between the caller and everymessage. When it’s time to pay, we switch on secure capture, and Paytia masks the keypad tones before the call audio reaches us. Card tones never reach the everymessage platform at all.
Fully integrated with Paytia
everymessage is fully integrated with Paytia and ready to use.
- Secure card capture starts within a second or two of the assistant asking for payment.
- The outcome comes back automatically by secure webhook, including the address, postcode and security-code check results.
- It works with our AI voice assistant and with calls routed to people, including team members on Microsoft Teams.
Less PCI burden, more payments taken
- Take card data out of your business. Card numbers never reach your staff, your desks, your phone system, your call recordings or our AI. With no card data in your environment, there’s far less to protect and assess: your business can become eligible for SAQ A, the shortest PCI DSS self-assessment, instead of SAQ C-VT or SAQ D.
- Stop pausing and redacting recordings. No more “pause the recording while you read me your card”, and no card data hiding in recordings for someone to find later. Every call can be recorded in full.
- Get paid on the call. Customers pay mid-conversation, while they’re ready to, instead of being sent a link they may never open. That matters most on collections and outbound calls.
- Protect your team. Nobody hears or handles a card number, so nobody can mishear it, write it down or be accused of misusing it.
- Keep your phone system. In front of it, behind it or instead of it: no rip-and-replace project.
- Let AI take payments safely. The assistant handles the conversation and Paytia handles the card, so you can automate payment calls without the AI ever seeing card data. It pairs with AI appointment booking when you take a deposit at the time of booking.
About Paytia
Paytia is a PCI DSS service provider assessed to Level 1 merchant processing status. Paytia handles the capture and transmit of customer card holder and sensitive authentication data on behalf of merchants looking to remove all card data from their business, people, processes and technology.
Find out more about Paytia’s AI payment security.
Frequently asked questions
Does the AI voice assistant hear the card number?
No. The caller types their card details on their keypad, and Paytia masks the tones before they reach the assistant. The assistant only learns that digits were entered and, afterwards, whether the payment went through.
Can we record calls where customers pay by card?
Yes. With DTMF masking, recordings only capture masked tones, so you can record whole calls without storing card data. Without it, PCI DSS doesn’t allow card security codes to be kept in recordings, which is why many businesses pause recording while customers read out their card.
What are the rules for taking card payments over the phone in the UK?
Card payments taken by phone must follow PCI DSS, the card industry’s security standard. It covers anyone and anything that hears, sees, stores or passes on card data, including your staff, phone system and call recordings. Keeping card data out of all of them, as here, cuts down what you have to secure and assess.
Can my team take payments this way too?
Yes. A team member can start secure capture during a call, and the caller keys in their details in the same way. Your team never hears or sees the card number.
Which payment gateways does it work with?
Paytia takes the payment through the merchant’s own gateway. That includes gateways such as Stripe; ask us about the gateway you use.
Do I need to change my phone system?
No. everymessage and Paytia can sit in front of your phone system, behind it, or replace it entirely with numbers from us.
Can we take payments on outbound calls?
Yes. Whether our AI voice assistant or your team makes the call, the customer can pay during it in exactly the same way.
Does this make us PCI compliant?
It takes most of the burden away. With card data kept out of your people, systems and recordings, your business can become eligible for SAQ A, the shortest PCI DSS self-assessment, instead of SAQ C-VT or SAQ D. You still complete your own self-assessment, and your assessor confirms what remains in scope.
See a secure payment on a live call
Book a call and we’ll show you a card payment taken during a live call, by our AI voice assistant and by a team member, with the card number masked throughout. Then we’ll map out how it fits your calls, inbound or outbound, with or without your current phone system.