The real answer to setting up a merchant account please

7-14-03, 12:57 PM

Hello everyone,

I've browsed through the existing posts and have read most of them. I see that Jade (as usual), SimCoWeb and Stevel are the main players. Here's my main question in which I have not been totally sold on:

How do you set up a credit card system for an online store with these requirements/questions in mind:
1. I do not wish third party processing. I realize most customers do not wish to have to be a member of say a Paypal in order to purchase the product. They want to view their shopping cart, click the button, enter their information and then not have to worry about their information getting leaked.
2. Does osCommerce or Powershop handle the actual processing of the payments??
3. I've heard of manual processing of CCs and also for those of you who are familiar with 2Checkout.com, companies that process your order in a protected environment, but which one is more advantageous, just to order a cc machine and take the orders via email or have another company process the order??

If there is anything else I missed, please let me know. I've been researching this for a while but I want to get it right the first time. Thank you for your time and patience.

Tryton

Jade Dragon · 7-14-03, 04:32 PM

Hi tyton!

If you want your own merchant account you will need to contact the business services at your local bank or financial institution.

The fees for this vary from bank to bank.

Usually they will ask you to purchase the equipment needed to process the payments. This will range from $800.00 to $1500.00 (give or take a few$$)

The transaction fees starting out can be between 2.5% to 5% depenting on credit rating and nature of your business.

There are more specific questions your bank may ask in order to set you up with a Merchant account.

This is one of the main reasons that places like PayPal are very popular for the smaller net business.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Once a product is ordered through OSC then the CC is stored in the database. I do not know how it is stored or if it is encrypted.

You can then log into Admin panel and check the orders and process the payments. This is not automatically done. You will need to process manually through your merchant account.

=)
Jade

7-14-03, 06:41 PM

How did I know Jade would be the first to respond. Thank you Ms. Dragon for the quick response.

Okay, so say I don't have $800-$1500 laying around, what are my options for trying to set up a shopping cart, but not having my customers 1) sign up with a third party and 2) making the transactions as safe as possible.

stevel · 7-14-03, 11:49 PM

You would sign up with one of the payment processing services for which OSC has a payment module. There are lots. With these, the actual entering of the CC number is done on the service's secure site and is, I assume, stored in their secure database (rather than the insecure database your local OSC uses. At least this is how I think it works...

If you select the OSC module for simply entering CC numbers for your later viewing, the number is not encrypted, though I saw a contribution that would do so. I haven't looked at it.

The store I'm working on is for a small business owned by friends - I run their web site. They like to do their business over the phone, but were open to a web store if it didn't cost much, as they anticipated few sales that way (and really can't handle a lot of sales - their product is limited quantity and tends to sell out..) Since they already handle their own credit card transactions, I am going with the simple (and free) method for now. The CC numbers will be deleted from the database as soon as the order is processed.

7-25-03, 12:23 AM

I process through Authorize.net. If you look at all the shopping carts out there, it is probably the most supported for online processing. I can probably find a list of commercial ones and many of the free ones do. You have to sign up through a reseller of their services. I used www.ecx.com a long time. E-onlinedata is another I have seen. It was expensive then, but that has all changed and now it is relatively cheap.
Cybersource is a another and they offer Verified by Visa MasterCard SecureCode payer authentication. I think this may cost a little more in fees, but gives buyers even more security.
I'm using Auctionworks.com to manage my ebay auctions and they have specials when you sign up with either of these companies.
Ed

8-11-04, 05:24 PM

Another example of a merchant account provider is ikobo. The good thing is that the customer doesn't need to sign up with them in order to make a purchase. I could give you a little more details if you wish but since I'm new here I'm not gonna go on and on about it because someone may say I'm advertising or something.
Just trying to help as much as can as well and try to learn a thing or two.

Song · 8-14-04, 12:12 AM

Someone mentioned Authorizenet.com. Yes, they are a reliable gateway but you will still need a processor. Now there are processors out there that are crooked,with hidden fees.

When I starteed 2 years ago I used IPAYMENT as a processor. Please Tryton dont use Ipayment!!!! BE WARNED. This is how I got burned by them.. read on. 3 customers reported that they did not recognise transactions after our company changed its name and merged with another company. The proper procedure is to investigate first before a charge back is effected and only if there is fraud. Ipayment will penalize you first ($25) before investigation of the transactions. In our case, we contacted the customers and the misundertanding was rectified in seconds. IPAYMENT will not give us back $75 penalty they applied to account even in the absence of fraud.

We are currently using CARDSERVICES international. They are worry free and superb. No hidden fees, No game. No penalty fees levied unless transaction is faulty.

IPAYMENT has hidden fees which they begin to apply to your account 3 months after you have begun with them. They will charge you for telephone calls you made to them about their nebulous charges. I stand by these allagations against them for which we complained to Better Business Bureau. PLEASE BE WARNED! THEY ARE AN ENEMY OF SMALL BUSINESSES!

If you want, please PM me and provide me with you fax number so I can make a believer out of you.

PS: CARDSERVICES also have their own gateway - LINKPOINT. We chose to stay with Authorizenet.com because of good services. In the future, hopefully after one year, we plan to use linkpoint in order to have all together with cardservices international.

8-16-04, 12:20 PM

That sure sounds bad. I'll make sure to stay away from them. Thanks for the heads-up Song.
Regarding authorize.net, I was also considering them a while ago but once you learn you also have to sign-up with a merchant account and pay a fee to them as well... what can I say, made me look elsewhere.

310ei · 9-2-04, 05:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tryton

Okay, so say I don't have $800-$1500 laying around, what are my options for trying to set up a shopping cart, but not having my customers 1) sign up with a third party and 2) making the transactions as safe as possible.

Paypal has implemented many changes in the last 6 months and the ability to pay without being a member is one of them.

Click HERE to read how PayPal’s shopping cart works.

You’ll have to signup for a Business/Premier account in order to receive credit card payments. PayPal charges 2.9% (within USA) and 3.9% (USA to International) + $0.30 per transaction. There are no initial setup fees. PayPal fees can vary (click HERE) depending on your volume of business.

Most merchant accounts charge fees in order to have our customers use their credit card. I had a regular (equipment, etc.) merchant account and paid a monthly fee (besides the % and transaction fee) whether my customers paid with a credit card or not. With PayPal you pay the fees when someone actually uses it.

PayPal offers integration with Outlook Express or Microsoft Outlook (click HERE) in order to send payment buttons or links in an email if needed. I use that feature constantly, my customers appreciate the ease and convenience. I can customize what I want our customers to see when they’re paying (click HERE for sample). Notice the banner at the top of the page; our customers feel secure knowing their payment will get to us and not someone else. You’ll see that if a customer has a PayPal account, they can login, otherwise they can select the credit card option.

As far as safety is concerned, all of them specify on their website what they do to protect our sensitive information. There is one important thing we can do to protect our information and that is not to fall for SPOOF emails/websites (click HERE). PayPal never asks for information within an email, always log into your account manually. PayPal has seller protection available if you follow their guidelines (click HERE for terms).

The choice is yours of course, but this forum is a great place to weigh the possibilities.

Please note: I am not criticizing the many other online payment options available, merely offering my experience with PayPal.

Regards,
Merrill

9-3-04, 03:18 AM

Paypal may be a good choice for many people, although those who lost money through their paypal accounts wouldn't agree, it isn't for me because it only accepts a few countries, and mine isn't one of them. For now at least I'm using ikobo and so far I haven't had any problems or customer complaints... so far.

310ei · 9-3-04, 11:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jimbo

It isn't for me because it only accepts a few countries, and mine isn't one of them. For now at least I'm using ikobo and so far I haven't had any problems or customer complaints... so far.

True, Paypal is not for everyone, especially if it isn't available in your Country. I wish you continued success with your business and ikobo.

emdmx · 9-3-04, 11:47 AM

There really is a ton of things to consider here. After having set up a few carts for companies who allready had merchant accounts - now I'm looking to install one for my own internet retail business with real time card processing.

My local bank wants a $190 nonrefundable application fee and uses Viaklix/Nova for a gateway/processor. I wanted to go local, but it's been hard to get info from them on a COMLETE list of charges!

Then I looked at PayPal. Sounds simple and relatively inexpensive, but the trust factor and negative feedback is a concern. Since I don't want to ship everywhere - just U.S. and Canada (and maybe Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands) - I ruled out some of the more expensive international processors. Am now looking at Echo. It seems that they are reasonably priced, and that their charges are all listed up front.

As far as carts go, after reading this forum, I ruled out osc. I'm leaning toward ClickCartPro or Lite Commerce...Tricky to find the cart with the right payment modules, ease of use, ability to export to Peachtree/Quick Books, good support, inventory tracking, and reasonable pricing. One cart I purchased before doing good research didn't even have thumbnail upload capability or newsletter module! My bad! (They offered to write and install a newsletter mod for $480 - I didn't respond) CCP sounds about as good as it gets for under $200, but I'm not finished studying. Any thoughts?

John

9-6-04, 07:51 PM

So, I have a merchant account and a credit card terminal already for a community benefit event I am planning. What would you say the next step would be for me, a non-programmer, to use OSCommerce to put tickets for our event onsale online? I have downloaded OSC already, is this going to be something I will need to refer to a programmer (I've read the other posts in this forum and they all look pretty programming-heavy), or will a smart person be able to whack through it to put something basic up? I'm not worried about customization or tons of extras. Just selling tix on the web.

stevel · 9-6-04, 08:38 PM

Ok, this is easy. Go into the admin panel of osC. Select Modules..Payment. Click on "Credit Card". If it is not installed, click the + button to install it. Then click Edit.

Set these values:

Enable Credit Card Module: True
Split Credit Card E-mail Address : insert your e-mail address here
Payment Zone: none (default)
Set Order Status: default
Sort Order of Display: 0

Click Update.

Now look to see if any other payment modules are enabled, indicated by a number in the Sort Order column. If they are, edit them and set Enabled to False.

Now what will happen is this. The customer places their order and is prompted for the CC information. You will receive an e-mail with the order number and the middle 8 digits of the CC card. You then log into admin and view the order to see the rest. To try a test case, use the card number 4111111111111111 with a future expiration date.

With this info, you can process the transaction with your terminal.

9-17-04, 06:16 AM

Since you mentioned OSC, just recently there have been 2 modules released that provide integration of ikobo into OSC. Here's the link to one of them, complete with a demo of the shopping cart from ikobo: http://www.ostemplates.net/product_i...roducts_id=122

11-3-04, 05:19 AM

Thanks for this info. I've been considering using OSC for the shop I'm going to create but I had a problem with choosing a processor because not many of them cover my country and the ones that do don't have OSC modules. Since I've been using ikobo for p2p transfers for a while now I think this would make a good choice for me. I'll try it out and see how it goes.
Thanks again for the info, you may have been of great help!

7-14-03, 12:57 PM	#1
tryton Posts: n/a	The real answer to setting up a merchant account please Hello everyone, I've browsed through the existing posts and have read most of them. I see that Jade (as usual), SimCoWeb and Stevel are the main players. Here's my main question in which I have not been totally sold on: How do you set up a credit card system for an online store with these requirements/questions in mind: 1. I do not wish third party processing. I realize most customers do not wish to have to be a member of say a Paypal in order to purchase the product. They want to view their shopping cart, click the button, enter their information and then not have to worry about their information getting leaked. 2. Does osCommerce or Powershop handle the actual processing of the payments?? 3. I've heard of manual processing of CCs and also for those of you who are familiar with 2Checkout.com, companies that process your order in a protected environment, but which one is more advantageous, just to order a cc machine and take the orders via email or have another company process the order?? If there is anything else I missed, please let me know. I've been researching this for a while but I want to get it right the first time. Thank you for your time and patience. Tryton

7-14-03, 11:49 PM	#4
stevel XPW Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: New Hampshire, USA Posts: 9,464 Reputation: 265	You would sign up with one of the payment processing services for which OSC has a payment module. There are lots. With these, the actual entering of the CC number is done on the service's secure site and is, I assume, stored in their secure database (rather than the insecure database your local OSC uses. At least this is how I think it works... If you select the OSC module for simply entering CC numbers for your later viewing, the number is not encrypted, though I saw a contribution that would do so. I haven't looked at it. The store I'm working on is for a small business owned by friends - I run their web site. They like to do their business over the phone, but were open to a web store if it didn't cost much, as they anticipated few sales that way (and really can't handle a lot of sales - their product is limited quantity and tends to sell out..) Since they already handle their own credit card transactions, I am going with the simple (and free) method for now. The CC numbers will be deleted from the database as soon as the order is processed. __________________ Steve

8-11-04, 05:24 PM	#6
jimbo Posts: n/a	alternative.... Another example of a merchant account provider is ikobo. The good thing is that the customer doesn't need to sign up with them in order to make a purchase. I could give you a little more details if you wish but since I'm new here I'm not gonna go on and on about it because someone may say I'm advertising or something. Just trying to help as much as can as well and try to learn a thing or two.

8-14-04, 12:12 AM	#7
Song Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Pittsburgh Posts: 55 Reputation: 5	Someone mentioned Authorizenet.com. Yes, they are a reliable gateway but you will still need a processor. Now there are processors out there that are crooked,with hidden fees. When I starteed 2 years ago I used IPAYMENT as a processor. Please Tryton dont use Ipayment!!!! BE WARNED. This is how I got burned by them.. read on. 3 customers reported that they did not recognise transactions after our company changed its name and merged with another company. The proper procedure is to investigate first before a charge back is effected and only if there is fraud. Ipayment will penalize you first ($25) before investigation of the transactions. In our case, we contacted the customers and the misundertanding was rectified in seconds. IPAYMENT will not give us back $75 penalty they applied to account even in the absence of fraud. We are currently using CARDSERVICES international. They are worry free and superb. No hidden fees, No game. No penalty fees levied unless transaction is faulty. IPAYMENT has hidden fees which they begin to apply to your account 3 months after you have begun with them. They will charge you for telephone calls you made to them about their nebulous charges. I stand by these allagations against them for which we complained to Better Business Bureau. PLEASE BE WARNED! THEY ARE AN ENEMY OF SMALL BUSINESSES! If you want, please PM me and provide me with you fax number so I can make a believer out of you. PS: CARDSERVICES also have their own gateway - LINKPOINT. We chose to stay with Authorizenet.com because of good services. In the future, hopefully after one year, we plan to use linkpoint in order to have all together with cardservices international. Last edited by Song : 8-14-04 at 12:33 AM.

9-6-04, 07:51 PM	#13
pdxhairball Posts: n/a	another question... So, I have a merchant account and a credit card terminal already for a community benefit event I am planning. What would you say the next step would be for me, a non-programmer, to use OSCommerce to put tickets for our event onsale online? I have downloaded OSC already, is this going to be something I will need to refer to a programmer (I've read the other posts in this forum and they all look pretty programming-heavy), or will a smart person be able to whack through it to put something basic up? I'm not worried about customization or tons of extras. Just selling tix on the web.

7-14-03, 04:32 PM	#2
Jade Dragon Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Eä, Realm of Arda, Land of Middle-earth. Posts: 2,338 Reputation: 30	Hi tyton! If you want your own merchant account you will need to contact the business services at your local bank or financial institution. The fees for this vary from bank to bank. Usually they will ask you to purchase the equipment needed to process the payments. This will range from $800.00 to $1500.00 (give or take a few$$) The transaction fees starting out can be between 2.5% to 5% depenting on credit rating and nature of your business. There are more specific questions your bank may ask in order to set you up with a Merchant account. This is one of the main reasons that places like PayPal are very popular for the smaller net business. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Once a product is ordered through OSC then the CC is stored in the database. I do not know how it is stored or if it is encrypted. You can then log into Admin panel and check the orders and process the payments. This is not automatically done. You will need to process manually through your merchant account. =) Jade

7-14-03, 06:41 PM	#3
tryton Posts: n/a	How did I know Jade would be the first to respond. Thank you Ms. Dragon for the quick response. Okay, so say I don't have $800-$1500 laying around, what are my options for trying to set up a shopping cart, but not having my customers 1) sign up with a third party and 2) making the transactions as safe as possible.

7-25-03, 12:23 AM	#5
toycrazy Posts: n/a	I process through Authorize.net. If you look at all the shopping carts out there, it is probably the most supported for online processing. I can probably find a list of commercial ones and many of the free ones do. You have to sign up through a reseller of their services. I used www.ecx.com a long time. E-onlinedata is another I have seen. It was expensive then, but that has all changed and now it is relatively cheap. Cybersource is a another and they offer Verified by Visa MasterCard SecureCode payer authentication. I think this may cost a little more in fees, but gives buyers even more security. I'm using Auctionworks.com to manage my ebay auctions and they have specials when you sign up with either of these companies. Ed

8-16-04, 12:20 PM	#8
jimbo Posts: n/a	That sure sounds bad. I'll make sure to stay away from them. Thanks for the heads-up Song. Regarding authorize.net, I was also considering them a while ago but once you learn you also have to sign-up with a merchant account and pay a fee to them as well... what can I say, made me look elsewhere.

9-3-04, 03:18 AM	#10
jimbo Posts: n/a	Paypal may be a good choice for many people, although those who lost money through their paypal accounts wouldn't agree, it isn't for me because it only accepts a few countries, and mine isn't one of them. For now at least I'm using ikobo and so far I haven't had any problems or customer complaints... so far.

9-3-04, 11:47 AM	#12
emdmx Registered Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Arkansas Posts: 23 Reputation: 5	There really is a ton of things to consider here. After having set up a few carts for companies who allready had merchant accounts - now I'm looking to install one for my own internet retail business with real time card processing. My local bank wants a $190 nonrefundable application fee and uses Viaklix/Nova for a gateway/processor. I wanted to go local, but it's been hard to get info from them on a COMLETE list of charges! Then I looked at PayPal. Sounds simple and relatively inexpensive, but the trust factor and negative feedback is a concern. Since I don't want to ship everywhere - just U.S. and Canada (and maybe Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands) - I ruled out some of the more expensive international processors. Am now looking at Echo. It seems that they are reasonably priced, and that their charges are all listed up front. As far as carts go, after reading this forum, I ruled out osc. I'm leaning toward ClickCartPro or Lite Commerce...Tricky to find the cart with the right payment modules, ease of use, ability to export to Peachtree/Quick Books, good support, inventory tracking, and reasonable pricing. One cart I purchased before doing good research didn't even have thumbnail upload capability or newsletter module! My bad! (They offered to write and install a newsletter mod for $480 - I didn't respond) CCP sounds about as good as it gets for under $200, but I'm not finished studying. Any thoughts? John

9-6-04, 08:38 PM	#14
stevel XPW Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: New Hampshire, USA Posts: 9,464 Reputation: 265	Ok, this is easy. Go into the admin panel of osC. Select Modules..Payment. Click on "Credit Card". If it is not installed, click the + button to install it. Then click Edit. Set these values: Enable Credit Card Module: True Split Credit Card E-mail Address : insert your e-mail address here Payment Zone: none (default) Set Order Status: default Sort Order of Display: 0 Click Update. Now look to see if any other payment modules are enabled, indicated by a number in the Sort Order column. If they are, edit them and set Enabled to False. Now what will happen is this. The customer places their order and is prompted for the CC information. You will receive an e-mail with the order number and the middle 8 digits of the CC card. You then log into admin and view the order to see the rest. To try a test case, use the card number 4111111111111111 with a future expiration date. With this info, you can process the transaction with your terminal. __________________ Steve

9-17-04, 06:16 AM	#15
symon Posts: n/a	Since you mentioned OSC, just recently there have been 2 modules released that provide integration of ikobo into OSC. Here's the link to one of them, complete with a demo of the shopping cart from ikobo: http://www.ostemplates.net/product_i...roducts_id=122

11-3-04, 05:19 AM	#16
jimbo Posts: n/a	Thanks for this info. I've been considering using OSC for the shop I'm going to create but I had a problem with choosing a processor because not many of them cover my country and the ones that do don't have OSC modules. Since I've been using ikobo for p2p transfers for a while now I think this would make a good choice for me. I'll try it out and see how it goes. Thanks again for the info, you may have been of great help!

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