Credit Cards

ACCEPTING CREDIT CARDS ONLINE

• Has a bank approved Merchant Account or Gateway Account with an appropriate Credit Card Processing organisation.
• Has an Ecommerce enabled website with an online Catalogue and Shopping Cart.
• For a Merchant Account the website must have Secure Server facilities.

PAYMENT GATEWAY

• An authorised account holder with a Credit Card Processing organisation.
• This includes PayPal, WorldPay & Sage amongst many others.
• Convenient, secure and reliable processing of online credit card payments.
• Instant status check, validation & authorisation helps to prevent fraud & speeds up order processing.
• Provides 24-hour, 365-day, worldwide cover.
• Potential problem areas:
• Tends to be slightly more expensive than a Merchant Account.
• Owing to programming complexities, it is essential to establish which Payment Gateways are supported by the shopping cart being used on the website BEFORE applying for approval.
• This is extremely important. Most shopping carts only support a limited number of payment gateways.
• Note that PayPal tends to be the most supported payment gateway'
• If you decide to use Weblink4u to build and design your ecommerce website, we will provide guidance and recommendations to ensure you have the solution that is best for your business.

MERCHANT ACCOUNT

• An authorised merchant with one of the main High Street banks.
• Approved to process credit card payments from customers in their own right.
• Approved to process credit card payments in "customer not present" mode.
• Existing businesses & retailers who are currently authorised to accept credit card payments should be able to utilise the facility for online trading without any difficulties.
• Merchant is solely responsible for checking status & validity of the credit card being used by the buyer
• Potential problem areas:
• Online shops never shut. They are open 7-days-a-week, 365-days-a-year.
• When buying online, customers expect instant processing of their order and payment and get concerned if there is an undue delay
• One of the major concerns is fraud & the security of their credit card details
• But the average business could not afford to employ staff 24/7 to process payments.
• To alleviate customer concerns, it may prove more convenient, reliable and efficient to use a Payment Gateway instead (see above).