What is the difference between a payment gateway, a payment processor, and a merchant account?
There is a lot of good information in the other other answers here, but they might be too detailed and technical for a lot of readers. I answer this question a lot for friends and family, since I work in the payment technology industry. So here’s my slightly-less-detailed, but (hopefully) easier-to-understand explanation.
You can think of the Merchant Account as the business component to accepting credit cards, and the Payment Gateway as the technical component.
Much like applying for a loan or line of credit, the Merchant Account is underwritten by a bank. The bank uses the underwriting process to determine the risk presented by the company that wants to accept credit cards (i.e. the merchant). This includes risk from cardholder chargebacks as well as the risk that the merchant might defraud customers.
The payment gateway is the server to which you connect your website or cash register. It connects to one or more of the processor networks. It let’s your website or cash register know whether a charge is approved by the cardholder’s bank, and then submits your charges for settlement, so you get your money from the cardholder’s bank.
A processor is a system that connects the cardholder’s bank with the merchant’s bank, and the card brands (e.g. Visa, Mastercard, Discover, etc.), and makes sure that all of the money ends up in the proper place. In other words, the processors take the money from the cardholder’s bank account and deliver it to the merchant’s bank account.
For a long time, businesses would get merchant accounts and payment gateways from different vendors. As other posters have mentioned, there are new services that are “full stack” payments providers, and enable you to sign up with one vendor to get merchant account services and a payment gateway from one place. There are a lot of advantages to this: it’s a lot less work to get started, you get one point of contact for everything related to accepting credit cards, and as a bonus, you usually get a much more modern payment gateway.
Merchant account setup
The merchant website has a necessary part which is privacy policy. The website states by whom it represents and what information it collects. The information normally are the customers information when access and register on the website: such as name, contact, order information. As those information are related to confidential, the website must clearly claim what exactly it will do with this information and the how long the information stored. The computer cookie are also the necessary part of the privacy policy. The measures what the website takes to protect the customer information are also included. And third party links, update of the policy, etc. Although different website has different privacy policy, the point is that it has to state what it does comply with the law.
The submitted website for merchant account application in the trading website which will be integrated with the third party payment processor. If the merchant later wants to add new website, if the application being approval, he has to submit request for register new website. Usually it’s a quick procedure for adding new website. As processing channel has a code associated with the industry. Different product with different industry are not supposed to mix in one channel. It is the responsibility which is undertaken by the payment processor.
After the account setup with the payment processor, the first thing for the merchant is to integrate the website with the payment API. API is a document which instructs on how to integrate the website with the parameters of the gateway and how it works. Generally API is very easy to read and use. But if some merchant does not have much technical support or without technician, he can ask for assist from the payment processor. After integration done, the merchant can run a test via the gateway to see if payment goes through before live processing.
How do payment gateways work technically?
Acardpay offers a next-generation payment gateway distinguished by its flexibility and control. It can power any type of business and may be customized according to individual business needs.
The highly-customizable features of our payment gateway allow you to promote and sell your products all over the world in whatever languages and currencies you desire. The rules-based routing and cascading options built into our gateway provide infinite flexibility to increase your profits in all corners of the globe.
Our gateway offers an ultimate suite of payment features including order fulfillment api, recurring billing options, customizable subscriptions, chargeback protection and much, much more.
Best of all, our payment gateway is intuitive and easy to use.
Why is it so difficult for a startup to get a merchant account?
The merchant website has a necessary part which is privacy policy. The website states by whom it represents and what information it collects. The information normally are the customers information when access and register on the website: such as name, contact, order information. As those information are related to confidential, the website must clearly claim what exactly it will do with this information and the how long the information stored. The computer cookie are also the necessary part of the privacy policy. The measures what the website takes to protect the customer information are also included. And third party links, update of the policy, etc. Although different website has different privacy policy, the point is that it has to state what it does comply with the law.
The submitted website for merchant account application in the trading website which will be integrated with the third party payment processor. If the merchant later wants to add new website, if the application being approval, he has to submit request for register new website. Usually it’s a quick procedure for adding new website. As processing channel has a code associated with the industry. Different product with different industry are not supposed to mix in one channel. It is the responsibility which is undertaken by the payment processor.
After the account setup with the payment processor, the first thing for the merchant is to integrate the website with the payment API. API is a document which instructs on how to integrate the website with the parameters of the gateway and how it works. Generally API is very easy to read and use. But if some merchant does not have much technical support or without technician, he can ask for assist from the payment processor. After integration done, the merchant can run a test via the gateway to see if payment goes through before live processing.
Schedule and relationship with client
Every industry has their own law. For ecommerce business and foreign trade which related to merchant credit card payment, we have our own experience to share what we can do better on this.
Some people say there are so much hardship and great trouble in doing foreign trade business. You have to deal with Jet lag very often. This point I do not deny. But what industry does not have hardship. Compare to manual labor work, we cannot say definitely we are more hardworking than them. I used to add frequently used countries time on my phone, and put an electronic clock on my computer desktop which can show each country’s time, for the convenience of query. Actually most of time we have been known well and need not to check every time. For example, California time: our time zone minus 3 hours and turn over.
I have spent a lot of time on striving for time. Thinking of when I started doing foreign trade, I can work from day till night without sleeping. Of course this not to be recommended. You can have a plan previously. If you have meeting with your American client tonight. We can make a schedule and set an alarm clock. We need to rest for enough time before we communicate. Try to reply client in the first time immediately. Many client say Mark is the fastest email replier among many suppliers. But time is also what I have obtained strived. Let client feel that you are there any time beside them.
Client is god, this word is always right. But please remember he is your client but slowly he becomes your friend. From client to friend, we need more time. Make people believe you. We should dialectically analyze our client not weigh and consider them.
How do I accept credit card payments online?
There's a whole bunch of options available. Most MSP's offer a unique take on credit card payments online, each with a range of support, features, and alternative functionalities. Some processors allow Bitcoin payments, some focus on developer functionality, others, simplicity of use.
You're going to want to search for an online "payment gateway" or a "virtual terminal" that has woocommerce integrations.
A payment gateway will simply connect with woocommerce, and a virtual terminal will also connect to woocommerce, but it will provide your business with back end software to take a payment gateway a step further and manage inventory, payment information, recurring payments etc.
I strongly recommend the Virtual Terminal at Helcim, as client support is always standing by to help you with any questions and concerns. Here's a few important features of the terminal and how it's distinctive from a payment gateway.
Automatically emailed receipts, and email invoicing.
Recurring billing
Secure Tokenized Credit Card Vault
Custom payment pages and checkout features
Easy Woocommerce integration
Free bank deposits
and a whole bunch more.
Make sure you search for an integration that is FREQUENTLY updated, especially on Wordpress, look for their support options and the additional features offered.
Best of luck with the eCommerce venture, hope you reach your goals and vision with ease.
What is a secured payment gateway to make online payments?
Customers usually can’t choose their own payment gateway, so it’s up to you to make the best choice. Before you select the right payment gateway for your business, consider a few things that might be crucial for your transactions security.
At first, make sure that payment provider is PCI compliant level 1 and delivers additional layers of security, such as anti-fraud tools, 3D Secure, tokenization, machine learning-based solutions, etc.
Speaking of PCI, you should know that Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards(PCI DSS) provide guidelines for merchants that tell them what they need to do to secure sensitive data in payment processing. What’s important, when you choose a payment gateway which is PCI compliant, you don’t have to do it on your own.
Find also a solution with non-invasive 3D Secure authentication, which doesn’t hurt your conversion. Acardpay, a Swiss-based payment platform pays a huge attention to security and customer experience issues and provide a smart 3DS that doesn’t interrupt the payment process and makes it easy to complete a transaction, even if a user’s card is not enrolled in the program or when a user with an enrolled card doesn’t provide a PIN or when there’s a PIN error.
In all, it’s almost impossible to eliminate fraud, but there are many ways to secure your data and prevent it from being stolen.
