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Payment Processing
Source: Minority Business Development Agency
Payment Processing Options
Nowadays, brick-and-mortar merchants use electronic card readers to enter
credit card transactions. These gadgets have a slot to swipe a card, and a
numeric keypad to enter the numbers manually in case the swipe doesn't work.
They may be stand-alone gadgets connected directly to the credit card
network via a phone line, or they may be connected to a computer and work in
conjunction with a software package. Some are even wireless. If you're doing
business over the Web, you don't need one of these (regardless of what the
people who sell them tell you). What you need is a payment-processing
software package. Forget about phoning in orders or using one of those
old-fashioned manual card imprinters. The few banks that still allow such
transactions are sure to charge a premium rate.|
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Payment-processing software is usually sold as a service rather than a
product. That is, you don't install it on your Web server and run it
yourself, you simply pass credit card data to the software company's server,
and they take it from there. Most companies allow you to "buy" the
software or to "lease" it for a monthly fee, perhaps 20 or 30
bucks a month. For most businesses, the monthly "lease" would seem
to be the better deal. The company might go belly-up, or they may introduce
a new version of the software and require you to buy it all over again.
Why do you need to pay for such a system? Why not just have a CGI script
send an e-mail to the bank when someone places an order? For several
reasons, this simply wouldn't be robust enough. When a charge is made, the
transaction must be posted both to your account and to the customer's. If a
transmission gets lost or garbled, or if a computer somewhere along the way
crashes, the system needs to be able to overcome this, and make sure that
everything still balances at the end of the day. You also need secure access
to your merchant account, so that you can check balances and enter
transactions manually if necessary.
There are hundreds of companies making payment-processing software, but most
banks have a short list of ones that they will work with. The best-known
payment-processing packages are Authorize.net, Cybercash, IC Verify, and PC
Authorize. Which one is best depends on your needs. A payment-processing
system and bank merchant account are often sold as a package by a reseller,
who presumably can give you an honest assessment of which system is best for
you.
However complex payment processing may be, it should be fairly transparent
to the site owner. All you should need to do is to incorporate the
appropriate code into your order form. One decision you need to make is
whether or not you need real-time authorization. If you are selling
something that's delivered online, for example online content that requires
paid registration, or software that is distributed by download, then you'll
need immediate authorization, for customers will want to receive what
they've paid for right now, thank you. If you're selling something that you
send through the mail, then real-time authorization is not important.