This is one of the most asked questions at many forums and people often get confused about the terms Merchant Account and Payment Processor and think it is the same.

Also I see that people name a e-wallet solution like paypal or moneybookers as payment gateway, so here are a few clarifications which I hope someone find useful.

First of the e-wallet solution like paypal and moneybookers are neither a merchant account nor a payment gateway, they are electronic money services which let you quickly accept payments from millions of users around the world.  Sure people can pay you without to open a paypal account but still it isn’t the same, I will cover this in another post in the right forum.

A Payment Gateway is an electronic gateway which connects your website with the bank; most banks require using a 3 party payment gateway since they do not allow merchants to connect directly to the banking systems.  

Once you have integrated your website with the payment gateway, you will still need to be accepted by a bank and sign a “Merchant Account Application” or “Credit Card Acceptance Contract”; it is the same just 2 terms.  Many Payment Gateway Providers also called Payment Service Providers or in short PSP’s have already an agreement with one or more banks where they are able to help you to become the merchant account.

However sometimes it is useful to take in consideration that they might be other Banks which are cheaper and maybe have better conditions then the one your PSP’s suggest to use.

This part of the article has been taken from our Online Payment Forum, and the entire article can be found by clicking the link.

I came across some forums where some service providers of BIN (Bank Identification number) numbers offered those for sale. There are a lot of great Credit Card Anti Fraud providers that offer access to those numbers, however, the credit card association like Visa and MasterCard do not accept any member sharing them.

What are the BIN numbers used for ? If you Accept Credit Card Payments on your website or even Offline through a Virtual Terminal, then you can quickly compare live transactions against the BIN’s to validate the credit card number, also if a card is stolen, it will be listed as Stolen Card in the BIN database. So you will like to have an up to date BIN database to be effective.

So it is a question of where those numbers are released. If you Accept Credit Card Payments you will properly have faced fraud, fraud like someone that have bought a product or service from you and then made a chargeback or fraud where your credit card processor notified you that the transaction for a certain transaction was fraud due to wrong or non existing address or the card number is from a stole card.

What can you do about it? You will need to find a solution provider which is specialized in Credit Card Fraud on the Internet; you will be interested in looking at services like MaxMind or similar. The only problem is that most services only offer you a limited range of options to prevent fraud. They do offer you key data and some offer you a Management Interface where you can set up a few rules but so far no one offers a complete solution which protects you against fraud and where you can customize the system to meet your business requirements, sorry, there are a few companies but most small and medium sized companies cant effort the costs for it.
A good alternative would be to get those BIN numbers which I explained at the beginning of this post; however you will need to build your own script or software to use the BIN’s effectively. It makes no sense to buy them and just compare your Internet credit card transactions against the database, it needs more.

The question is; why does the card association not release this information the authorized payment service providers or at least let those companies compare their data against the BIN’s it would increase fraud dramatically. It is a question which will be left unanswered, sorry.

A theory could be that it is for security reasons and because the card association and its members not have full control of each and every payment gateway provider to make sure that they don’t release it to unauthorized people. This obviously is true, since if they had, there would not be that many companies offering the BIN’s for sales.

A good advice, if you offer your customers to pay online at your website and you also want to Accept Credit Card Payments, than use the tools available, even if they are not sufficient it is better than not have anything and just see the charge backs coming.

This posts contains the opinions of CCLOGIC LLC and its authors and don’t the opinions of neither the Card Association nor other Payment Service Providers.

The Internet has become an ideal place for hackers, scammers and criminals to use as their very own illegal playground with little fear of ever being found.

Online merchants need to minimize the risk of online credit card fraud by installing security tools and procedures that can effectively reduce up to 50% of fraud, a bonus for your customers and business. Fraudsters will most commonly conduct their criminal activities by setting up a web-based free email address, such as hotmail.com, yahoo.com, gmail.com and many others. Web-based email is mainly logged on via a web browser and not an email client, such as Microsoft Outlook or Mozilla’s Thunderbird.

Web based emails can be set up by anyone and so are a popular choice for criminals who use them to remain anonymous as details are not easy to trace back to the owner. Credit card fraud is helped in its escalation by underground software programmes used to generate thousands of usable, but false credit card numbers and various newsgroups set up on the Internet where stolen credit card data is posted.
As awareness of credit card fraud grows merchants are learning to undertake as many precautionary means possible to protect themselves against online crime. The obvious method would be to not accept credit cards on the website, but that would lead to losing international sales, impulse buyers, unable to compete with other online merchants and the vast majority of customers buying elsewhere.

 
There are a few methods you can use to minimize the risk of online fraudulent transactions. First and foremost is to make certain all customer details are completed and don’t accept the sale until this is filled in correctly. If your website experiences many cases of fraudulent transactions, consider not accepting any orders from a free web based email address. This might seem a little dramatic but if your losses are multiple with charge back penalties and transaction fees on top, it could be the only solution. Ask the customer if they have an Internet service provider (ISP) or domain based address as these types of email accounts are much easier to track.

Most fraudulent orders should only come through the free, web-based, or e-mail forwarding services. If you are wary of turning away business from customers with web based emails, consider the risks involved before making any final decision. If people have a free e-mail service they will usually also have an ISP email address also, supplied when the account was opened. Just let the customer know that orders through free e-mail services aren’t accepted and ask them to use their standard ISP issued address.
A simple way to confirm a transaction is to call the telephone number given on the order form. This will either confirm the order or bring the card holders attention to the fact that their card is being used for fraudulent transactions. Then notify the card issuing banks fraud department that the card is being used illegally.

Regrettably, fraudsters are always developing new systems and methods to avoid detection and stay one step ahead of the merchants, banks and FBI. As one fraud method is identified and thwarted, a new one springs up to replace it. Criminals are generally of different types, people who just try one time and are easily stopped with straightforward safety measures, petty criminals who can be prevented with high-quality anti-fraud tools, and professionals. The professionals are the ones that will make this a full time career and be clever enough to keep one step ahead of the law. Fortunately, there are not too many of these. Fraud committed against merchants will continue to grow so defend your website with a specialized system of anti-fraud tools.

There are that many good Anti Fraud Tools out there that a simple earch at google will help you to find the solution for your business.

Starting up an online business involves a lot of work and commitment for the merchant; confidence in the product, building and developing the web site, advertising and promotion are just a few of the activities that will make the business grow and succeed. Therefore, when a merchant sees his profits being eaten up by fraudsters and chargeback penalties, it is understandable he wants to do everything in his power to put a stop to credit card fraud. Although accepting credit card orders on a website allows merchants to automate online sales and reduce costs, the real target is to control the menace of fraudulent online credit card transactions.

More often than not, the credit card holder doesn’t lose out if their card is used in a fraudulent transaction; the credit cards issuing bank covers the loss and reimburses the customer since they are keen to keep their custom and encourage more spending on the credit card as it generates big profits for them. The customer is often liable for the first $50 of a fraudulent transaction but issuing banks will often return all monies as a show of good will. The merchant takes most of the costs of fraud in the loss of the product or service, chargeback penalties and transaction fees, never mind the time spent in checking transactions, chasing up payments and reporting the crime.

Credit card fraud runs into billions of dollars each year and increases as internet usage grows and more new businesses venture online. In recent years credit card companies have had to look seriously at the issue of credit card fraud and deploy methods that will curtail fraudulent transactions. All merchants at some point will experience online fraud, reporting it to the police will do little as there just aren’t the resources or time to solve these types of crimes and usually investigation costs far exceed the actual amount stolen, especially if it is an international crime.

Choosing the right payment gateway provider suitable for the type of business is crucial, if the business is new it might be more practical  financially to make a contract with a third party provider, as they deal with most of the transactions, but as business increases the transaction fees for each sale can start to add up.

One of the most important features for a website is the anti-fraud system; make certain it is suitable for your type of business. No business is the same, the product and type of customer attracted to the website will be different in every case and the anti-fraud tools should reflect this. Merchants will experience varying levels of crime depending on the type of product on sale, geographical location and the merchants own knowledge of fraud.

The larger credit cards such as Visa and MasterCard have a programme whereby they monitor the amount of chargebacks produced by each merchant, if merchants exceed their given limit then they have to pay penalties. Banks impose penalties to encourage merchants to be more diligent when checking credit card transactions. If a merchant does experience many chargebacks, then the banks will discuss the situation with them and offer advice and security tips on techniques to reduce the number.

These can include making a record of the e-mail address, card number and phone number of those who have caused the chargebacks; observing how regularly an individual card is used; limiting the amount one card can charge without authentication and supplying a merchant with a customer service telephone number to call if there is a query. The credit card providers research into the areas where security is the weakest and use this information to get merchants to take extra precautions at these points.

Internet credit card fraud will continue to grow and as an online merchant there is a responsibility to utilize an anti-fraud system and start the implementation today. Each time a merchant receives an order from a new customer there is the chance that this will be a fraudulent transaction. The merchant has to decide; a possible fraud or revenue? Costs in advertising and promoting the website and products are high and potential customers might turn out to be valuable life-long shoppers, setting rigorous fraud policies might scare them off and limit profitability. Look online for an effective payment gateway provider with a high security anti-fraud system.

Online sales are big business and these days every website has to offer their customers the chance to pay for goods and services using credit cards, if it wants to meet customer needs. Accepting credit cards is known to increase profits as credit card users are more likely to purchase on impulse and spend more. The advantages include payments arriving much faster, no waiting around period while the cheque is received and has to clear before the goods can be shipped and no bouncing credit cards. If this payment method isn’t available potential customers will take their money elsewhere and business will decline.

To enable your website to accept credit cards there are a number of systems to be put into place. These are outlined below.

Shopping Cart System

The first thing you need to set into place when selling online is an electronic shopping cart system. First, there is the product catalogue where products available to purchase from your store can be viewed. Once the customer has choiceed the product they want it’s added to the cart, customers are able to choice as many items as they like and the system will total it all at checkout. Once the shipping address is added, the system also calculates postage and any taxes to be paid. The final part of the process is when the customer enters their credit card details and this is where the gateway system comes into operation to conclude the sale.

Shopping cart systems can be simple with no frills, offered for free by organisations involved in ecommerce solutions in order to get you to buy other services from them, or they can be costly to purchase and contain many features. To choice the shopping cart system that’s best for your business, you need to take into consideration the type of product for sale, the purchase choices you want to be able to offer customers, the inventory control application and range of automation required.

Gateway Service

The gateway service is an automatic process of the payment transaction between the customer and the merchant. Once the customer enters their credit card details, these are electronically sent to the gateway service which then forwards the information to the credit card processor for authorisation.

Credit Card Processor

A credit card processor is a data center that electronically processes the credit card transaction. The processor will deal with the transaction, authenticate and accept or decline the credit card for the merchant using secure internet connections. After checking the validity of the transaction, if everything is correct, they will transfer the funds into the merchant account.

Merchant Account

Without a merchant account your website can’t accept credit card payments. An online merchant account is a bank or other financial institution where money generated from your online sales is placed by the processor. Some banks associated with credit card services, such as Visa and MasterCard, issue merchant accounts; however as online businesses are regarded as risky they may refuse you an account. This is not a great problem as due to the rapid growth of online sales there is a choice of merchant organisations that will set up an account for you. 

Shopping has changed dramatically with the expansion of retail stores online, offering shoppers anything from a fully fitted kitchen to a kitchen tap. Add to this the increasing number of websites that now accept credit cards and shopping online has never been easier or more convenient.

There are many organisations out there that will facilitate you in the setting up of your online credit card payment system and other requirements. These organisations have varying fees, so ask around and take a good look at their website before making any final decision. If you spend your money wisely in this area and choice a reputable company with a good reputation for its systems you will see an increase in sales from credit card customers. Lastly, ensure the service you decide upon has an up to date anti-fraud system that will protect your business from fraudulent transactions.  

Credit card fraud is an increasing threat to businesses selling goods and services through the internet. Online merchants have to offer their clients payment by credit card if they want to increase sales and keep existing customers, however, if fraudsters have used a stolen credit card or its data to purchase goods the merchant loses money because of chargeback penalties. Merchants can refuse to accept transactions that they are suspicious of in order to avoid chargeback penalties; however, this can have a detrimental effect as the merchant could end up losing out on legitimate sales.

Normally a chargeback will start with the credit card holder noticing a discrepancy on their statement whereby they will have been charged for a purchase that wasn’t authorized by them, they will make a complaint to the credit card provider. Mostly, the merchant is responsible for the fraudulent transaction, unless they can show that the transaction was valid. The provider will take the original amount from the merchant plus an administration fee levied by them, so the merchant loses the goods or services provided, plus the amount paid for them and the fee levied. This is known as the chargeback penalty. There could also be currency conversion commissions to be paid. The bank collects the chargeback fees as they arise so the merchants’ bank account could become overdrawn and bank charges incurred.  The merchant can appeal if they disagree with the charge and if the appeal succeeds then the merchant will be refunded the charges. 

Sometimes, a dishonest customer will purchase an item using their credit card online and then make a complaint to the credit card company that it is a fraudulent transaction, after they have received the goods. In these situations merchants can have trouble recuperating the payment.

If the merchant is dishonest or just doesn’t have the money to return then the credit card provider is liable for returning the funds to the customer, so to minimize this risk, the merchants chargeback risk is assessed rigorously.  Many credit card frauds can be stopped when the customer inputs their personal details; if the merchant has an efficient security check he will prevent many chargeback penalties himself as well as gaining a reputation as a trustworthy business with the credit card provider.

Credit card companies set a limit to the number of chargebacks generated by a merchant. If the number of chargebacks goes above this limit then the merchant will be fined by the company.  As well as penalties and fines imposed, chargebacks can also harm a merchants business and reputation. If, even after a fine is imposed, the number of chargebacks continues to be high, the credit card provider can decide that the costs are too high and cancel the merchants account. The merchant would be unable to accept credit cards as payment on his website and consequently lose out on sales. For some online merchants this would involve losing the majority of their sales and result in the end of their internet business.

There are many effective and valuable online credit card fraud systems on the market today that can help prevent chargeback penalties. The systems are designed to identify attempted fraud in the early ordering stages and alert the merchant so they can void the transaction. Many online merchants have no understanding of the extent of online fraud and overlook it until it is too late; awareness arrives with costs, fees and penalties. Costs of purchasing an anti-fraud system will far outweigh penalties incurred and protect your business reputation. There are a number of good websites that provide anti-fraud systems. A good system will protect you from fraudulent transactions, meaning less losses and more profit for your business and ultimately benefit your customers.

As more and more retail and service providers make the decision to sell their products online in order to meet demand, online credit card fraud increases and millions are spent in expenses each year. Most online fraud is committed by using stolen credit card information; the most common method is copying information from retailers, online or offline. Merchants who sell and ship their products online have to deal with the security issue of the credit card holder and card not physically present at the time of purchase, (commonly known as CNP – card not present) so the merchant has to depend on the details that the buyer inputs online. It is impossible for a merchant to verify that the purchase is legitimate. There are various ways to try to identify and prevent credit card fraud.

Each computer has its own unique address that identifies the location of the computer network. This is known as the IP address. You can identify where the order was placed by finding out the IP address.

Always be cautious of orders where the address for the item to be sent to is a Post office box number or a mail forwarding address. Google can check an address and identify if it is a mail forwarding company.

Unusual orders should always be carefully scrutinized. These might be requests for vast quantities of the same product or the same item ordered in multiple quantities. Also watch out for multiple orders placed from the same customer or orders placed with different names but the same credit card number or the same shipping address.

If the customer requests the order to be dispatched straight away don’t be inclined to rush through the security checks in order to not lose the sale. Many fraudsters do this deliberately, on the basis that if they give you limited time details won’t be checked thoroughly.

Some order processing software has referrer information on orders so you can look into which terms the customer used to find your site. When searching for products, people will normally search the category or the keywords products are advertised under, when fraudsters are looking they will be more likely to search under ‘overnight delivery’ or ‘international shipping’ rather than the keywords associated with the product.

Normally the billing address matches the shipping address, so if these differ take care to check through other details provided.

Contact details provided can sometimes send up discrepancies. Look out for the area/city given as the address and see if the area code is a match. If the customer uses a free email account, such as Yahoo, Hotmail or Google, be wary of email addresses that don’t match the customer’s name.

Many fraudulent transactions can be prevented straight away with vigilance and an awareness of what to look out for. If you are really unsure of an order never complete the transaction unless you have done everything you can to confirm the details. As the merchant, if a credit card is a fraud then the goods or services are lost along with the payment, the fees for processing the payment, any currency conversion commissions and there will be a chargeback penalty. On the other hand, if merchants refuse transactions as they are suspicious they face the chance of losing a legitimate sale.

There are a number of good websites that provide anti-fraud systems. A good system will protect you from fraudulent transactions, meaning less losses and more profit for your business and ultimately benefit your customers.

Online sales are big business and these days every website has to offer their customers the chance to pay for goods and services using credit cards, if it wants to meet customer needs. Accepting credit cards is known to increase profits as credit card users are more likely to purchase on impulse and spend more. The advantages include payments arriving much faster, no waiting around period while the cheque is received and has to clear before the goods can be shipped and no bouncing credit cards. If this payment method isn’t available potential customers will take their money elsewhere and business will decline.

To enable your website to accept credit cards there are a number of systems to be put into place. These are outlined below.

Shopping Cart System
The first thing you need to set into place when selling online is an electronic shopping cart system. First, there is the product catalogue where products available to purchase from your store can be viewed. Once the customer has choice the product they want it’s added to the cart, customers are able to choice as many items as they like and the system will total it all at checkout. Once the shipping address is added, the system also calculates postage and any taxes to be paid. The final part of the process is when the customer enters their credit card details and this is where the gateway system comes into operation to conclude the sale.
Shopping cart systems can be simple with no frills, offered for free by organisations involved in ecommerce solutions in order to get you to buy other services from them, or they can be costly to purchase and contain many features. To choice the shopping cart system that’s best for your business, you need to take into consideration the type of product for sale, the purchase choices you want to be able to offer customers, the inventory control application and range of automation required.

Gateway Service
The gateway service is an automatic process of the payment transaction between the customer and the merchant. Once the customer enters their credit card details, these are electronically sent to the gateway service which then forwards the information to the credit card processor for authorisation.

Credit Card Processor
A credit card processor is a data center that electronically processes the credit card transaction. The processor will deal with the transaction, authenticate and accept or decline the credit card for the merchant using secure internet connections. After checking the validity of the transaction, if everything is correct, they will transfer the funds into the merchant account.

Merchant Account
Without a merchant account your website can’t accept credit card payments. An online merchant account is a bank or other financial institution where money generated from your online sales is placed by the processor. Some banks associated with credit card services, such as Visa and MasterCard, issue merchant accounts; however as online businesses are regarded as risky they may refuse you an account. This is not a great problem as due to the rapid growth of online sales there is a choice of merchant organisations that will set up an account for you. 

Shopping has changed dramatically with the expansion of retail stores online, offering shoppers anything from a fully fitted kitchen to a kitchen tap. Add to this the increasing number of websites that now accept credit cards and shopping online has never been easier or more convenient.

There are many organisations out there that will facilitate you in the setting up of your online credit card payment system and other requirements. These organisations have varying fees, so ask around and take a good look at their website before making any final decision. If you spend your money wisely in this area and choice a reputable company with a good reputation for its systems you will see an increase in sales from credit card customers. Lastly, ensure the service you decide upon has an up to date anti-fraud system that will protect your business from fraudulent transactions.

It has been a long time since all our business transactions were in cash or cheques. The wish to be able to handle more business, make our procedures faster and more efficient and to give a better service to our clients has resulted in a wide range of technologies and services that are now so pedestrian that we sometimes wonder how life would be without them. And as we are now working within a growing world economy, the need for fast and save business transactions and accepting credit card payments has never been greater.

We are proud to be a company that offers payment solutions, as accepting credit card payments online. We merge modern technology with knowledge and understanding in our field. Our products are valuable to private organizations as well as local authorities, and come with full support and guidance from our highly qualified team.

Basically, we offer a gateway for merchants , which is fast and simple in use. With our resources it is very simple to accept credit card payments online. All the transactions are safe and we always guarantee discretion from the start to the end of a procedure. Our services do not just cover this. Here is a list of the other products in our expertise:

·         Payment Gateway

·         Merchants Accounts

·         Virtual Terminals

·         Credit Card Fraud Detection Service

·         Consultancy Services

·         Partner Projects including:

Affiliates Program

Reseller Program

Private Label Gateway

Integrators

·         Customer Support

Payment Gateway - is a very powerful gateway solution that will provide you with:

·         All you need to run a lucrative e-commerce business.

·         A payment gateway that is a strong and secure and allows you to accept credit card payments online.

·         A system that is easy for medium sized as well as large companies.

·         Total power over all your transactions and printing your own statement.

·         A powerful system that lets you deal with several Merchant Accounts on a single server and install different clearing banks at the time.

·         A system that allows payments in any currency of choice.

Merchant Account – With the merchant interface you can:

·         Control transactions.

·         Observe transactions.

·         Get summaries, graphs and more. The merchant interface is a secure website that you can enter from anywhere with an Internet connection.

Virtual Terminal – Our Virtual Terminal software:

·         Allows fast manual processing of mail orders and telephone orders in a secure environment.

·         Is desktop application that allows use without browser and logins. This is to avoid online insecurity. Read more about our Virtual Terminal software here.

Consultancy Services – Cclogic.com Consultancy is for those are looking for advantages from the knowledge of our team and business. We can help you if:

·         you want to set up your own payment service provider.

·         you need insider information from the sector.

·         you need to plan how to deal with different complicated aspects of this industry such as risk management, due diligence and compliance.

·         you need tools to manage your business.

Partner Projects – Cclogic.com offers an unparalleled range of prospects for partners, and we are always looking for chances to expand our business. We offer:

·         a generous affiliate scheme where you can earn commissions from link backs and sales.

·         An excellent reseller program that connects your gateway to Cclogic.com. This means that you will make use of our experienced team, have the wide range of banks with which Cclogic.com is already connected and you will be able to start up your payment service provider business. You will have access to the advanced and recently developed anti-fraud system (VFraud) which you can offer your merchants as additional security. This is your opportunity to get started easily or to expand your existing PSP, ISO or MSP business.
As a reseller and Cclogic.com contractor, you will automatically join Cclogic.com’s affiliate program. Pass on a new or existing business to us as payment service provider, merchant service provider or independent sales organization and you will earn 45% commission for every lead that ends up as a contract. You see! We wish to make every effort to help you make good earnings while working with Cclogic.com.

·         Private Label Gateway – The private label gateway at Cclogic.com allows you to start accepting credit card payment fast and secure. We currently have two solutions; online or to install the Gateway Program on your computer.

Customer Support - Cclogic.com provides:-

·         Absolute support for all our products, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

·         Guarantee that we will look after your needs at all times, and supply many routes for support if required.

Press Releases and Current News – Cclogic.com provides:

·         a library of resources relating to the business

·         information to keep you abreast of relevant current news.

As you can see we are more than just a payment solution company that allows you to accept credit card payments online.  We offer an complete service of support and resources, which allows you to deliver the best service to your customers. We also keep you up to date with what is going on in your particular business area. We are sure that you will be very satisfied you choose us.