PAYMENT GATEWAYS, PROCESSORS and MERCHANT ACCOUNTS
What is a Payment Gateway?
A Gateway is the software that facilitates communication between Credit Card Advantage and your processor over the Internet. It is used in verifying and authorizing credit card transactions.
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Why does my company need a Gateway?
A payment gateway is beneficial for several reasons. E-commerce offers limitless revenue opportunities and a gateway enables you to tap into its exploding potential by giving your customers a simple, secure and compelling way to make purchases. Conducting business transactions over the Internet can be less expensive and more convenient than using a dial-up, frame relay or leased line. And, finally a payment gateway gives you an easy-to-use, accessible interface that lets you review batches and exceptions and manage your merchant account whenever you want.
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What is a Processor?
Processor refers to the company that takes the money out of the merchant's customer's credit card bank account and deposits it in to the cardholder's issuing bank account.
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What is a Merchant Account?
A Merchant Account is an account a merchant has with a bank in order to accept credit card orders from customers. Funds are collected by a bank from credit card purchasers and disbursed to the merchant. Once the merchant has a merchant account set up, the merchant can accept credit card information from customers.
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If my bank is not on the list of processors, can I still use Credit Card Advantage?
A simple inquiry as to which processor the bank is using will answer that question.
(Note: The processors used by most major banks can be found on our list.)
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I have changed processors is there anything that I need to do in Credit Card Advantage?
Yes, in the CCA Setup window, change the name of the processor and save it.
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I have a new merchant account, what do I need to do with Credit Card Advantage?
If the name of the gateway and processor are the same then you do not need to change anything, in CCA windows. However we encourage you to do a few test transactions inorder to assure that the transactions are working correctly.
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When will I see the money transfer to my account?
You will see money in your account anywhere from 1 to 3 days.
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What is Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT)?
EFT transfers money automatically using the facilities of the Automated Clearing House (ACH), an entity associated with Federal Reserve Banks. EFT initiates a transaction to collect money directly from the customers bank account, located anywhere in the USA. It can also transfer money outwardly to pay bills.
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How does credit card processing work?
You enter the customer's credit card and personal information.
You will send this through your payment gateway to your processor.
The processor will send a request to the customer's bank.
The bank that issued the customer's card will make sure that this is a valid account.
The issuing bank will reply with a message of approved or denied.
If it is approved then the gateway will request an authorization of the funds, otherwise it will return to you a denied message.
When that happens the issuing bank will put a hold on that amount of money.
It will give an authorization code for that amount.
When the processor settles it will use the authorization code to charge the card.
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I am using Verisign as my Gateway. I processed a credit transaction on got an error message 117. What does this mean?
This is not an error, it is a security issue. Currently, your Verisign Account is setup to not handle credit transactions that are not associated with an original transaction. To have this security setting changed you will need to call Verisign support and ask them for a Security Settings Reset Form.
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I am using Paymentech as my Gateway. I am trying to process a transaction and get the following message in my status field:
Error. eHost has received a badly formatted message. The SubMessage [AVS STATE] with ID [357] is too long [7]. Maximum allowed is [2].
What does this mean?
This message means that the information you are sending to Paymentech is not correct. When sending information about the state, use the state abbreviation.
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What processors do your Gateways support?
- Paymentech Gateway
- Nashville
- FDMS South
- Vital
- Paymentech
- Global Paymentes East
- Global Payments Central
- EDS Aurora
- Nova
- American Express
- Cybersoure Gateway
- Authorize.net
- USA ePay
- Wells Fargo Gateway
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