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Take payments over the phone or by post (‘MOTO’)

You can use GOV.UK Pay to take payments over the phone or by post. These payments are called Mail Order / Telephone Order (MOTO) payments.

This kind of payment does not have a section for billing addresses because they are not needed. 3D Secure does not apply to MOTO payments.

There are 3 ways to take MOTO payments through GOV.UK Pay. You can:

You need to turn on MOTO payments on your GOV.UK Pay account before you can take payments over the phone or through the post.

Turn on MOTO payments

Warning If your PSP is Worldpay, you’ll need to have separate services set up for MOTO and non-MOTO payments.

You can turn on MOTO payments on a test account or a live account.

Test account - turn on MOTO payments

Email govuk-pay-support@digital.cabinet-office.gov.uk and ask us to turn on MOTO payments on your test account.

You do not need to provide any supporting information yet.

Live account - turn on MOTO payments

How you turn on MOTO payments on a live account differs depending on whether you use Stripe or Worldpay as your PSP.

Stripe - turn on MOTO payments on a live account

  1. Make sure you comply with the most recent version of the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS).

  2. Email govuk-pay-support@digital.cabinet-office.gov.uk to confirm you are PCI DSS compliant and would like to take MOTO payments on your account. We’ll email you to let you know we’ve turned on MOTO payments.

Worldpay - turn on MOTO payments on a live account

  1. Create a new MOTO service that is separate from your online payments service - to do this, sign in to the GOV.UK Pay admin tool and select Add a new service.

  2. You need to process MOTO payments on a separate MOTO merchant code to the one you use for online (non-MOTO) payments. If you do not already have a merchant code for MOTO payments, ask for one by contacting Government Banking. You’ll use this merchant code when you connect your new service to your PSP.

  3. Make sure you comply with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS).

  4. Email govuk-pay-support@digital.cabinet-office.gov.uk to confirm you are PCI DSS compliant and would like to take MOTO payments on your account. We’ll email you to let you know we’ve turned on MOTO payments.

You can still take online payments through your non-MOTO service.