Taking Credit Cards over the Internet

by Rick Strahl, West Wind Technologies

Disclaimer: This document is based on my personal experience with these companies. Your mileage may vary

Last Update: 08/10/2008

There have been a number of questions regarding getting Internet credit card transactions processed. This document highlights some of the issues and lists a providers that I have checked out and worked with (if you have detailed information on other providers let me know).

Taking credit card transactions over the Internet is a three step process:

• Getting a merchant account
  This is the process of being able to actually take credit cards and have transactions moved into your checking account. This involves signing up with a bank credit application for Visa/Mastercard and getting set up to have funds transferred into your account. To sign up with other cards like American Express Discover you need to separately sign up with them - once you have a merchant account this can usually be accomplished with a phone call, but still it's extra work...
  
• Setting up Internet Transaction Processing
  Once you have a merchant account you need a mechanism to process transactions. Traditionally you used to either swipe a card in the store, key the card in a Zon device or you used payment processing software like ICVerify for physical or mail order processing. Internet payment processing involves transaction processing over an open Internet connection, so the transaction can be performed online, potentially even on the Web server itself. Internet transaction services typically provide an API, an HTML type input terminal for manual entry and full online reports of transactions and batches. Transaction processors are separate from the banks that provide a merchant account, although some providers provide a single transaction statement seemingly providing a single service.
  
• Integrating the Transaction Processing into your site
  Once the logistics are set up and you can actually take credit cards and process them over the Web, you need to integrate the software into your application. Most providers have an API that allows code access to processing functions. Most of these APIs are in C and require writing a wrapper DLL. API architecture also varies from client server pieces and pure server pieces. Client server pieces are more difficult to set up as the client side needs to be configured with secure keys and requires the server to be configured to match. Pure server side APIs typically require no client setup and are more flexible as you can use HTTP tools of your choice.

Some services combine the merchant account and Internet processing into a single service - but expect to pay for this privilege - your rates tend to be higher. Your merchant transactions and Internet transaction fees tend to be charged separately. 

Be very careful and shop around. Most of the providers work with agents that work on commission. They sell you a service at their own markup rates, which is their (only) profit - prices can vary widely. Most of the merchant email junk mail you receive is from these guys. 

Signup fees are typically expensive. When I checked around recently it was between $500-$1000 for the providers to flip a switch. The exception has been AccessPoint (see below). If you can find somebody at the provider companies directly you're likely to get better rates. Once this space gets more crowded prices will likely come down.

Here's a list of providers that I've dealt with:

AccessPoint

http://www.accesspoint.com/ 

Product: 
AccessPoint Transaction Manager

This company provides an innovative approach to providing Internet Credit Card transactions with a straight forward, easy signup procedure. AccessPoint can either set you up with a new merchant account or interface with your existing merchant provider.  

Internet Gateway Fees:
$150 flat signup fee for a software license, which includes free technology upgrades for life. There is a $12/month gateway fee, which allows for unlimited transactions.

Merchant Account Fees:
Merchant accounts can either be set up for you by AccessPoint or you can use an existing merchant account if compatible with the supported payment networks.
Merchant rates for Visa/Mastercard are between 2.25-2.75% of transaction total and .25-.35 per transaction depending on dollar volume, personal credit rating and type of business. There is no additional fee to sign up for this service. Merchant accounts have a standard $10 monthly statement fee and a $25 monthly minimum fee applied against purchase discounts.
This is by far the lowest signup rate I've seen for Internet payment processing and the merchant rates are excellent as well (but this may vary depending on your credit rating).

API:
AccessPoint provides a pure server side API that is navigated via HTML or HTTP clients. Since it's all server based it can be hooked up to even totally static sites. AP provides sample HTTP input and response pages. For programmatic control the same interface can be used via raw HTTP. The interface is simple and can be implemented in under an hour with wwIPStuff or other HTTP client. Note though that the documentation is not that good, especially if you plan on building a custom HTTP interface to the service as everything is documented with HTML documents only. 

Performance of the API is excellent. Transactions process in 5-10 seconds. Response is a simple URLEncoded confirmation string with two fields (Y/N, authorization code or error string). Simple and very light weight! Security is implemented by communicating via SSL. High encryption is recommended... 

This interface is directly supported in the West Wind Web Store.

Contact:
The rates above are only valid when dealing with the company directly. You must mention West Wind Technologies or you will not be quoted this low pricing. Note: we are not making any money of your signups - this info is provided as a customer service only and we've worked with the folks at AccessPoint to make this direct pricing available to you. The following contact can set you up:

Roger Murray, Processing Source
(818) 226-6900 ext. 109
roger@processingsource.com 

Card Service International 

http://www.cardservice.com/ 

Product: Linkpoint API

CardService is a merchant provider that also provides transaction processing services in a single package. CardService deals with high risk accounts (Internet processing is almost always considered high risk, unless you've had an Internet Business without problems for a while). If you've never had a merchant account or your credit isn't top of the list CardService will probably give you a merchant account. This comes at a price though: CardService checks up on you a lot - I had to provide tons of documentation and had serious amounts of funds held for quite a while. Customer service is horrible and the company appears to never have heard of the concept of email for notification - everything's done by phone. Customer service is very hard to deal with at this company.

Fees:
Signup: varies - they work with agents. Typical is between $500-1000. If you get somebody at the company you can get lower. Roughly .25-.35 per transaction depending on volume.

Merchant rates will likely be high percentages due to the high risk nature of their service 2.25-3.00%. Monthly minimum of $25 and a $10 statement fee are also assessed. 

API:
CardService provides their own branded API called LinkPoint. This is really ClearCommerce's payment interface. This API is a C based interface and requires a wrapper DLL. I've created a wrapper DLL that communicates with the API via XML. The API consists of a client side library communicating with a remote server. The client side involves installing a key file provided by CS, and the interface DLL for use in VFP. The API works well and transaction times are between 5-15 seconds, but be aware that you're dealing with two companies here: CardService and ClearCommerce who are the API providers and hosting company for the actual Internet clearing service.

In addition excellent reports and a good HTML terminal are provided.

This interface (and any other ClearCommerce implementation) is directly supported in the West Wind Web Store.

Contact:
Bill Plander (CardService)
Bill is a FoxPro/Web Connection developer at CardService and he can probably hook you up with an internal agent.

---

[Home Page][Web Connection]