Online Payment Processing 101

If you currently have steady web traffic to your website and are considering accepting payments online then you are in need of a Merchant Account. Internet merchant accounts have the same requirements as retail with the following website criteria:

Merchant Web Site Requirements

• Complete description of good and services offered
• Returned merchandise and refund policy
• Contact information, including address and telephone
• Transaction currency
• Export or legal restrictions
• Delivery policy
• Consumer data privacy policy
• Security method for the transmission of payment data (SSL Certificate)

Refund Policy Disclosure

• An Electronic Commerce Merchant Web Site must communicate its refund policy to the Cardholder during the order process and require the Cardholder to select a “click to accept” or other affirmation button to acknowledge the policy.
• The terms and conditions of the purchase must be displayed on the same screen views as the checkout screen used to present the total purchase amount or within the sequence of web pages the Cardholder assesses during the checkout process.

The Transaction Receipt Must Include

• Merchant name most recognizable to Cardholder
• Merchant “doing business as” name (DBA)
• Merchant “universal resource locator” (URL)
• Merchant name used for clearing
• Customer Service contact information, including telephone number
• Terms and Conditions of sale
• Exact date free trial period ends, if offered
• Cancellation Policies
• The merchant must not transmit the full account number to the cardholder

Once you have your website up to Visa/MasterCard standards you need to select a Shopping Cart, Gateway, and Payment processor. Make sure that you do the research when deciding and make sure that all of them are PCI Compliant.

What is a Shopping Cart?

A shopping cart is a software used to create an online storefront for an e-commerce site. It keeps track of the products a customer wishes to purchase and allows them to add or remove items. Some shopping carts will also house the payment page, where the cardholder will input their payment information. In other cases the cardholder is redirected to payment page hosted by the payment gateway.

What is a Payment Gateway?

A gateway is an online application which allows payment information to be entered and processed over the internet. It is the online equivalent of a credit card processing terminal, but often includes more reporting and processing options.

What is a SSL Certificate?

A SSL Certificate is a cryptographic protocol that enables secure communications over the internet. Used for email, online banking, credit card processing and other tasks which require secure transmissions.

What is Hosting?

Hosting is storing and maintaining web sites, email, or any other web files on a server that allows the content to be viewed over the internet. This is required for anyone to view the website that you are developing.

What is 3D Secure? Do I need it?

3D Secure is payer authentication through Verified by Visa and MasterCard Secure Code. Enrollment in these programs will deter fraudsters from making purchases from your website and also protect you from “I didn’t do it” chargebacks.

Is it expensive to accept cards through my website?

The ecommerce rates are higher than retail since the card is not being swiped. You will also have monthly and per transaction gateway fees that average $15 per month and $0.15 per transaction. You will also incur additional fees for maintaining quarterly scans for PCI compliance of up to $250 a quarter.

How can we help?

At BankCard Central we are not only a merchant service provider, but we also have our own PCI compliant gateway, VerePay. VerePay allows you process transactions online, participate in 3D Secure, and many other programs if your merchant type is qualified. We can also eliminate the finger pointing that often occurs between gateways and processors when something goes wrong. We can even provide you with SSL Certificates, domain registration and hosting.

BankCard Central provides all of their merchants with PCI Compliance Quarterly Scans from ScanAlert for free the first year and only $19 each additional year. This is an annual savings of almost $1000.

For more information please contact the sales department at 800-745-7220.