ACCEPTING CREDIT CARDS ONLINE

Accepting online orders made through a credit card is a necessity for all those who do business over the internet. If orders made using a credit card are not accepted, a trader tends to lose close to 85% of the potential business orders. According to reports of online businesses, 95% of the orders are by online forms.

Online orders made using a credit card are easier to accept than what they appear to be. To accept online orders made by a credit card, the following basic things will be required:

-       Merchant Bank Account

-       Software

-       ISP (Internet Service Provider)

Merchant Account – This is a special type of account that a dealer has with an institution such as a bank which is required so that credit cards can be accepted. If the current account does not permit internet transactions, then the financial institution needs to be contacted so that this could be corrected.

There are several brokers available to open a merchant bank account. However, one has to be careful while opening accounts with the help of a broker since they try selling of leasing out expensive equipments. One has to remember that equipments and software are not required for opening an account. All that is required is to pay a minimal processing fee.

Software – Most of the brokers who help in opening merchant accounts offer hardware or software for processing credit cards. If a credit card has to be accepted on the internet, one requires software solutions and not hardware solutions. With software solutions, transactions need to be entered manually. The most important fact is that the software is accompanies by technical support provided by the manufacturer. All the information required can be obtained from the bank. Also, real-time processing can be done but the benefits and costs must be calculated before making a decision.

Internet Service Provider – It is not a simple task to choose an ISP. Certain providers offer complete service as well as the software required for processing orders made by credit cards. However, a few other providers may offer only the basic services.

The first basic thing required from an Internet Service Provider is Secure Workstation. Moreover, a Secure Workstation is not very expensive and a basic cost must be paid every moth to make up of a Secure Workstation. A number of ISP Providers offer a Secure Workstation for free. The best possible way of using this server is through the internet service provider who hosts the website; but an ISP can be selected by the merchant. After a Secure Server is running, a software is required which displays store forms, order forms, etc. Since there are several products available, it is difficult choosing the correct product.

There are 2 methods that are used to process the orders placed by using credit cards. In the 1^st method, the authorization of the credit card is done immediately and customers too receive answers immediately. In the 2^nd method, information gets delivered to the dealer in order to process the order.