No doubt, when a website offers the additional facility of credit card payment; users are more likely to buy products or services without a second thought. You may think that integrating this type of payment option on the website will make your website unmanageable due to the numerous different options there are, but if you follow the tips below, they will lead you through the process and help you familiarize with this procedure.
The first step to take is to apply for a merchant account at your bank. An IMA is compulsory if you start accepting credit card payments either online or elsewhere. You may find other financial organizations that provide this kind of account if you don’t wish to go to your bank for one.
When you choose to add the credit card payment option, the bank is nominated as the “acquirer” and has the role of authorizing transactions and confirming the funds available between the credit card’s bank and yours. The funds will then be transferred to your bank account after having deducted a fixed fee. Make sure you find out more about these fees when you sign up for a merchant account.
It is imperative you follow a pre-established set of rules that your acquiring bank will inform you of when you open your merchant account. These rules are necessary in order to keep the financial transactions secure and in line with government legislation that regulates these procedures. Most of the credit card providers nowadays offer the added benefit of allowing online authorization, which allows for quicker transaction procedures and a safer method of payment.
However, you can proceed with manual authorization when processing payments online, by passing through your integrated system of sale. This is not the safest way to proceed and is not the best way to carry out online transactions. Imagine manually processing hundreds of payment procedures? It cannot be done simply by using your website’s integrated sale system; it would take too long to manually insert hundreds or thousands of credit card numbers to check for authenticity. You will find that most times merchant accounts simply do not allow this kind of payment procedure. Whichever way you decide to proceed; an Internet merchant account is a must.
The Internet Merchant Account is not the only issue you have to deal with when accepting credit card payments, you will also need to purchase the services of a PSP, which is a payment service provider. This service manages the payment pages on a website, by creating a virtual point of sale. The PSP verifies all the details collected from the credit cards checking for frauds. Once it has screened these details, it then passes the payment on to the bank that processes the payment.
You can choose different options with PSPs as they have packages to suit all requirements. The different options mainly focus on whether you want to host secure payment system on your personal webpage or through the PSP server. You can sometimes find Internet Merchant Accounts that also offer PSP services and vice versa.
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