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New to online payments?
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Welcome to our version
of 'A Dummies Guide to Online Payments'
You have heard stories about people making their fortune
selling online. You are now ready to get stuck in, however
you’re not sure how to get started and what everything
means. With this guide we will help you understand how
online payments work and hopefully will get your business
online and trading in no time!
For the purposes of this guide we are going to assume
you are totally new to online payments and have no prior
experience.
Lets begin...
Processing payments
The first thing you need to do is set-up a merchant
account and payment gateway to process the payments.
The merchant account verifies credit card and customer
information. This includes checking to see if the details
supplied are correct (address, card number etc.) and
if the card has been reported stolen, or has enough
funds.
A payment gateway is separate and acts as an intermediary
between your website and all the banking systems. This
is a seamless process and your customer does not interact
with the gateway. The credit card and customer details
are submitted via the gateway, which securely sends
the information through the relevant financial networks
to the merchant account.
If the transaction is successful, the merchant account
then deposits funds to your designated bank account
where you can then access them.
With all our accounts we provide both the merchant
account AND the gateway.
How do they actually pay me?
Now you know what happens to actually process a payment,
you now need to know the methods to allow customers
to physically pay you.
The two main methods for online payments are:
- Through a website
If you are wanting to accept payments through your
website you will need to have some sort of shopping
cart or website which is integrated to the payment
gateway and merchant provider. Once someone adds product(s)
to the basket and wishes to pay, they will then be
taken to a secure payment page where they can enter
their credit card details.
All our in-house developed shopping carts are integrated
to our merchant accounts
- Using a virtual terminal
or VPOS (Virtual Point of
Sale)
To take credit card transactions over the phone (MOTO),
you simply enter the customers credit card information
onto a secure website that you access and submit the
information to complete the transaction. The virtual
terminal is like a payment page in reverse. However
instead of the customer entering their details on
your website, you complete it for them.
We provide a FREE virtual terminal or VPOS with all
our accounts.
This is how it all works
Once someone buys from me, when do I get the money?
As part of the application procedure you must supply
details of the bank account you wish funds to be paid
into. This is the money that you have taken, minus any
transaction fees, from customers using your website
or virtual terminal.
Depending on which merchant account you choose depends
on when you get your money. With the Optimal you are
paid weekly, 5 days in arrears. The Premier Account
is weekly, 14 days in arrears, and with the World Account
you are paid weekly, 28 days in arrears.
Anything else I need to know?
Well that's the crux of it really. However to enable
you to get the merchant account you do need to make
sure you are the following;
- At least 18 years of age
- Have a business Bank Account
(unless sole trader)
- Incorporated in one of the
following countries
- One of the supported entities
i.e. Individual, Sole Trader, Limited Company etc.
- Business must NOT be
on the prohibited businesses list
For much much more information please use the links
on the left.
Further Help
For a list of commonly used words that you may come
across when trying to set-up or understand eCommerce
solutions and payment gateways, please
click here
To read much more about the process, including a detailed
explenation of how it all works and what is involved,
plus a case study, please
click here |
