Accept credit cards online
At the press of the purchase button, on the order form, the order information passes on to the server and from there the process depends enormously on the technical solution installed on the website. There are several technical solutions available in the market today and accept credit cards online they differ in terms of price, degree of automation, security levels and several other factors.
Broadly, the solutions can be categorized into two major headings, firstly the solutions which offer real time processing and secondly the deferred processing solutions. With real time processing the payments get immediately approved in a matter of few seconds, while in case of deferred processing the order details are passed on to the merchant who will then process the order. Each of these two methods has its own advantage and disadvantage which we shall discuss in the following text.
Real-Time Credit card Processing:
The biggest advantage is that the customer gets to know immediately whether his payment has been processed or not. This is a must have feature when selling software or information that can delivered electronically as the order can be fulfilled within a few minutes. This speed of order processing accept credit cards online and delivery of product will definitely be rewarding in terms of higher sales. However, for orders which need shipment, this feature may not make much of a difference.
Real time processing of credit card payments inspires confidence in the customers about your business while also cutting down the time and effort wasted in case of incorrect information. For instance if a customer enters the wrong expiry date in to the web form, the customer comes to know that his payment has been declining and he can resubmit the information. Though such situations are rare but still it can be avoided by using real time credit card processing solutions.
This very point can also serve as a negative aspect where hackers who have incomplete credit card information may be able to figure out the remaining information by making several trial attempts. So considering this it is quite possible that fraudulent transactions with real time processing may be somewhat higher.
When using a real time processing solution there is no need to continuously sit by the system. Everything gets done automatically and you will receive an e-mail notification about the order placed buy the customer.
Real time payment processing can be done in two ways:
1. It is common to use of processing provider who specializes in the field of internet money transactions such as cybercash. Such companies will provide you with scripts that can be used to build up the store front in such a way that their solution can be easily integrated with your software. These services are usually expensive and the setup fees could fall in the range of $180.00 to $800.00 and in addition to this you will have to pay anything up to 40 per transaction or a fixed monthly fee of up to $50.00. And not to forget that these costs are in addition to the bank charges.
2. You can also install credit card processing software onto your server. Most of the vendors who provide such processing software have solutions which can be customized and integrated with your store front. To implement this solution you need to install a modem on your server which can be connected to a dedicated phone line. The expenses that you will encounter in the implementation of this solution are modem Charges which are generally around $50.00, ISP installation charges of around to $250.00 and the software can be purchased from $200.00 to $800.00. With all these payments made the only recurring cost will be for the dedicated phone line.
Some of the internet service providers have accept credit cards online processing software preinstalled on their servers which will help you to easily get started with your web store. Such ISPs may charge you something around $200.00 for the initial setup and there will also be a transaction fees or monthly fees for using their system. The main problem with this could be if you plan to change your ISP, this solution cannot be transferred on.
Just a word of caution for those who plan to use the real time processing solution, do ensure that the software does not maintain a log on the server for all the transactions, as this log usually contains confidential information about the customer which can be misused by hackers.
Deferred credit card Processing
With deferred accept credit cards online processing it is not possible to immediately fill in the orders, so this is something which can work pretty well for goods not to be delivered over the internet.
Talking about the advantages of the solution, it gives you a chance to manually inspect the orders and make required corrections before the shipment. The orders can easily be edited if a customer contacts you, after placing the order, to make any changes.
At times the credit card issuers network may not be functioning especially if the customer is from a different country. And when you try to process such orders you are returned with a message to call the call center of the credit card company to get an authorization. But in case of real time processing at such times the customer is told that the payment has been declined and you will loose out on the sale.
Deferred processing also comes out to be cheaper as compared to real time processing. The only requirement is to have credit card processing software which is easily available for around $400.00 and can be used both for internet orders and phone orders, and there are no additional processing costs.
The orders are transmitted to you by your store front and then you will have to carry out manual processing for the same. This brings out the disadvantage associated with the solution, which is that you need to spend a lot of time on a daily basis to download and process the orders. The process may be simple but it calls for everyday attention.
It is essential that the orders are securely encrypted and stored on the server and mailed only to you as the chances of credit card details getting stolen are very high in such a solution. This issue should be discussed with your ISP.
Looking at all the information regarding these two different types of credit card processing solutions it is not an easy task to decide which one is better but then a close and careful analysis might lead you to an answer.
Other Articles
