Payment Methods — Castle S4
Card Present › Castle S4 › Payment Methods
Every card type and card entry mode supported by the Castle S4
Supported Card Brands
Visa Mastercard American Express Apple Pay Google Pay
American Express is processed on a separate Merchant ID. Amex must be enabled on your account before transactions can be accepted. Contact your Account Manager to confirm.
Card Entry Modes
📐 DIAGRAMCastle S4 terminal with 4 entry modes labelled: (1) NFC zone — contactless/Apple/Google Pay, (2) Chip slot — Chip & PIN, (3) Swipe slot — magnetic stripe, (4) Keypad on screen — keyed entry
| Mode | How the card is read | When to use |
|---|---|---|
| Contactless | Customer taps card or phone on NFC zone | Fast transactions under the contactless limit. No PIN needed for most transactions. |
| Chip & online PIN | Card chip inserted; PIN verified by card network in real time | Standard purchases. Most common method for amounts above contactless limit. |
| Chip & offline PIN | Card chip inserted; PIN verified by the card itself (no network needed) | International cards and some older UK cards. Behaves identically from merchant's perspective. |
| Swipe (magnetic stripe) | Card swiped through right-side reader | Fallback for cards with an unreadable chip. Use only when chip and contactless both fail. |
| Keyed entry | Card number manually typed on-screen | Last resort — chip, contactless, and swipe have all failed. See keyed entry guide. |
| MOTO | Card details entered by merchant (not cardholder) | Phone orders and mail orders only. Requires MOTO permission on account. |
Important notes on keyed entry: Manually entered card transactions carry higher fraud risk and a higher interchange rate. Only use keyed entry as a last resort. Record the reason (e.g. "chip unreadable") for your records. If you frequently need keyed entry, contact TWPayz to arrange a terminal replacement.