Credit Card Payments App: What Security Certifications to Check First

Quick answer: “Credit card payments app” can mean two different things: a checkout tool that accepts a customer’s card, or a tool like Zil Money’s that lets you charge your own card to pay vendors, rent, and bills that don’t take cards directly. This article covers the second kind. It’s worth trusting with your business’s money when it can show real, named security certifications, pay vendors who don’t take cards, run on the devices your team actually uses, and connect to your accounting software. Zil Money’s credit card payments app checks each of these boxes.

Is a Credit Card Payments App the Same as a Card Reader or POS System?

Not exactly, and the difference matters before you sign up for anything. Some searches for “credit card payments app” are looking for a checkout tool, a card reader that plugs into a phone or tablet so a business can accept a customer’s card at the register. That isn’t what most of this article covers. Zil Money’s credit card payments app solves a different problem: it lets you charge your own business credit card to pay vendors, rent, and bills that won’t run through a card reader, and it separately lets you collect card payments from your own customers through payment links. If you only need a register-side reader, look for a point-of-sale app instead. If you need to put a card charge behind a bill a vendor won’t swipe, the rest of this page covers that.

What Security Certifications Should a Credit Card Payments App Have?

A credit card payments app is handling your card number, your bank details, and your vendor list, so “secure” needs to mean something specific, not just a lock icon on the login page. Look for named, third-party-audited certifications. PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) covers how a platform stores, processes, and transmits cardholder data. SOC 1 and SOC 2 are independent CPA-firm audit reports: SOC 1 covers controls over financial reporting, SOC 2 covers security and data-handling controls. ISO 27001, ISO 20000, and ISO 9001 are international standards for information security, IT service management, and quality management. NIST 800-53 is a federal security-controls framework, CCPA compliance covers California consumer data-privacy rules, and HIPAA compliance signals the platform also meets healthcare-grade data-handling rules, even if you never touch medical records. Zil Money lists all of these on its own product page, so you can check each one directly instead of taking a marketing claim at face value. The same platform reports more than 1 million business accounts and over $100 billion in processed payment volume, numbers worth weighing alongside the certifications, not instead of them.

Can a Credit Card Payments App Pay a Vendor Who Doesn’t Take Cards?

Many landlords, contractors, and suppliers still ask for a check, an ACH transfer, or a wire, not a card swipe. That gap is one of the main reasons businesses look for a credit card payments app instead of just using a card directly. With Zil Money’s pay-by-credit-card option, you charge your own credit card, and the app delivers the funds to the vendor as a check, ACH transfer, wire, or virtual card, whichever they normally accept. You can fund payroll, bills, taxes, rent, and mortgage payments this way. If the vendor sends a bill as a PDF, you can also create checks directly from bills and invoices in PDF format instead of entering the amount and payee by hand. For most of these payout methods, the vendor doesn’t need a card reader of their own; a virtual card payout does still require the vendor to be able to process a card on their end.

How Do You Verify a Credit Card Payments App Before You Sign Up?

Start with security, since that’s the check most buyers skip.

1. Confirm the app names specific, third-party-audited certifications, such as PCI DSS, rather than just claiming to be “bank-level secure” with no proof attached.
2. Match the payout methods against what your actual vendors accept, whether that’s a check, ACH, wire, or a virtual card.
3. Read the current fee and minimum-balance terms before you rely on any “zero fees” claim, since these terms usually come with conditions.

For the rest of the evaluation, device access, accounting integrations, and spending controls, Zil Money’s own guide to what to look for in an app for credit card payments covers that ground in more depth.

Does a Credit Card Payments App Work on More Than a Desktop Computer?

It does. Zil Money’s app runs on desktop, tablet, and mobile, so you can review a payment from your phone between meetings instead of waiting until you’re back at a desk. That matters most for owners and finance managers who approve payments on the move, or for teams where more than one person needs to sign off before money goes out.

Will a Credit Card Payments App Connect to the Software You Already Use?

Check this before you commit, because re-entering the same payment in two systems is where mistakes happen. Zil Money integrates with QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Desktop, QuickBooks Payroll, Zoho Books, Zoho Payroll, Gusto, Xero, and Zapier. When the accounting integration is already in place, a payment made through the app shows up against the right invoice without a manual export or a second login.

Can a Credit Card Payments App Also Collect Payments From Customers?

A credit card payments app that only handles outgoing payments leaves half the job undone. Zil Money also lets you send payment links so your own customers can pay you by card. Both directions, paying vendors and getting paid by customers, run through the same dashboard and the same set of credit cards you’ve added to the account, which keeps your records in one place instead of split across two tools.

What Should You Know About Fees Before You Sign Up?

Don’t take “zero fees” at face value here, or anywhere else. Zil Money’s “zero fees” and “pay $0” language only applies to qualifying accounts and eligible transactions, and it requires a minimum average wallet balance of $10,000. Below that line, different terms apply. Cash-back rewards work the same way: they’re limited to qualifying transactions and subject to Zil Money’s own eligibility requirements and program rules, not the card issuer’s. None of this is a dealbreaker. It just means the real cost depends on how your account is set up. Pull the current terms and check them against your own balance before you build a budget around the word “free.”

Frequently Asked Questions