Secure Payments with SOTpay
Your security matters to us. Every payment you make to Gala Tent, whether online or over the phone, is handled by SOTpay, our own secure payment technology. You can pay by card or directly from your bank with open banking, and both are protected to a high security standard.
What Is SOTpay?
SOTpay is secure payment technology built in-house by our parent company, Gala Technology. Payments across the Gala group run on a platform we own and control, so your details are handled by our own system and are never passed around unnecessarily. You can read more at sotpay.co.uk.
Two Secure Ways to Pay
Pay by card
Pay by debit or credit card at the checkout, protected by 3D Secure, the verification step your own bank adds. Your card is tokenised, so your full card number is never stored on our systems, and every transaction is screened for fraud in real time.
Pay by bank with open banking
Prefer to pay straight from your account? With open banking you approve the payment securely inside your own banking app, and the money moves directly from your bank to ours. There are no card details to enter, and you authorise everything yourself.
Paying Securely When You Call Us
If you place an order over the phone, our team will never ask you to read out your card details. Instead, we send you a secure payment link. You open it and complete the payment yourself, in a protected session with your own bank's verification.
This keeps you safer in two ways. You never have to say your card number aloud or have it written down by anyone. And because the genuine cardholder has to approve the payment through their own bank, it stops someone using stolen card details to place an order. Our team never see or handle your full card number at any point.
Over 11 Years Without a Fraudulent Order
The proof is in the record. Gala Tent has not had a single fraudulent order in over 11 years. That comes from taking payment security seriously at every step, from the technology we built to the way we handle every order, online and over the phone.
The Security Behind Every Payment
Whichever way you choose to pay, every payment is protected by:
- PCI DSS compliant handling of your card data
- 3D Secure authentication through your own bank
- tokenisation, so your full card number is never stored on our systems
- real-time fraud screening on every transaction
- secure payment links for orders taken over the phone
See all the ways to pay, or read about spreading the cost on our finance options page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is it safe to pay Gala Tent online?
How do I pay if I order over the phone?
Do you store my card details?
Can I pay straight from my bank account?
What is SOTpay?
Have you ever had a fraudulent order?
Do You Take Card Payments in Your Own Business?
Everything above is how we protect you when you buy from Gala Tent. If you run a business that takes card payments yourself, the same technology is available to you. SOTpay is a Gala Technology product, and it helps organisations of any size take secure card payments and cut fraud. Here is how it can protect your customers and your revenue.
The Hidden Cost of Card Fraud for Businesses
Any business that accepts card payments, in person, over the phone or online, is exposed to fraud. Card-not-present payments, taken by phone or online, are especially exposed, because it is hard to prove the person using the card is the genuine cardholder.
Two risks hit merchants hardest:
Credit card fraud
A criminal uses stolen or compromised card details to place an order. Once the goods are delivered, the real cardholder disputes the payment with their bank, the funds are returned to them, and the business is left without the stock or the money.
Friendly fraud
A genuine customer places an order, then tells their bank they did not make or approve it. If the business cannot prove the cardholder authorised the payment, it loses both the goods and the revenue.
Either way, the business faces a chargeback, a demand from the cardholder's bank to refund a disputed transaction. Unauthenticated payments also carry higher card processing fees, because the bank treats them as higher risk.
How SOTpay Keeps Your Customers Safe
SOTpay is a cloud-based card-not-present payment solution from Gala Technology. It lets businesses of any size take secure, authenticated, PCI DSS compliant payments across the channels they already use, including telephone, email, web chat, SMS, social media and even video calls.
It adds a layer of cardholder authentication to every payment, such as 3D Secure or selected digits from an online banking password, details that only the genuine cardholder knows. That verifies the payment is genuine and shifts the liability from the business to the bank that authorised it. The result is fewer chargebacks, less fraud, and often lower transaction fees.
Your customers never have to read their card details aloud to a member of staff, which protects them too, in the same way it protects our customers here at Gala Tent.
