» Accepting Credit Cards On-Line
Regardless of the companies or services you enlist, there are 3 basic steps to accepting credit cards: 1) Getting the customers credit card number from the user's browser to you securely, 2) Processing the credit card information and authorizing the transfer of funds to a merchant bank 3) A merchant account with a bank that underwrites the risk involved in your transaction processing.
Taking Credit Card Information.
The most popular way to transmit credit card data securely over the Net is the secure sockets layer (SSL) protocol. Whether you gather customer credit card information from a form or a shopping cart, you will want it to happen on a secure server. In order to make a server secure using SSL, a digital certificate is required. The digital certificate identifies you as a legitimate business and allows all information to be encrypted for travel over the web.
Getting a Merchant Account
You'll need a special bank account in order to accept credit card orders. Most banks offer merchant accounts — the problem is figuring out which one offers the best price, usually as a percentage of each credit card order that you submit. Most banks charge higher fees for what they consider risky accounts, such as those with large numbers of charge-backs or fraudulent charges. Usually a U.S. business checking account and good credit are required to get approved for a merchant account.
Processing Credit Cards
Dozens of companies offer transaction processing software that sends the right information to everyone involved in the sale — your bank, the customer's bank, the bank issuing the credit card and so on. But most banks work with a handful of the biggest companies, including Authorize.net. Some processors lease their services to you for a monthly fee, while others take a percentage of your sales. Some processors will help you get a merchant account if you need one, and many have deals with ISP's that provide everything you need to build an online store. Be sure before you make any commitments that your processor is compatible with your merchant bank and your shopping cart software if you plan to do real-time processing.
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