Yep, ever have a merchant enter your CC number on the keypad IRL? That's what's happening. The fees for these types of transactions are typically higher as your processor is assuming more risk, so they prefer to only do them when they need to. See https://www.mastercard.us/content/dam/mccom/en-us/documents/... if you're really curious about how this stuff works in the MasterCard case. Visa is similar AFAIK.