Ok, here's my question... I am building a web site that will need to accept credit cards. The problem is - I know nothing about credit card acceptance and I am looking for advice!

I have looked into several companies that offer full service credit card processing including card verification, posting payment and transfering funds into my bank account, HOWEVER I am not sure if that type of service will work for me. Here is the situation: my web site will need to create a record in the database for the person who signs up, DERIVE A UNIQUE ID NUMBER FOR THAT PERSON USING THEIR NAME + ADDRESS INFORMATION and send them a welcome email. It seems that the only way to make this possible would be to accept credit cards directly on my site, not redirect customers to the processor's web site. But in this case, I don't know how to actually charge the credit cards the customers put in. I am not sure if I am explaining this well... anyway, any advice on credit card acceptance would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Mark.

Start here: http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/show...50&postcount=1

You'll need a gateway like Authorize.net or Verisign. That way you can integrate them directly into your website and manipulate your customer's information anyway you want to.

If you have any more questions, just ask.

Try paypal! http://paypal.com they work great

Do you want to process the CCs yourself? Maybe cheaper to start with, though you would still need a merchant account with your bank (pretty much like they do in brick and mortar shops), but you would need to tell them that you intend to take internet sales - which will raise the fees a little.

If the above is all you need, then take a look at a freebie like
http://www.mals-e.com

They take the payment, you get notified but you do the CC check yourself. You can also upgrade to a premium account where they do the processing for you.

As I don't completely understand what you are after, this is all I can offer right now

Nadia

I use 2checkout, service is pretty good. But there's a joining
http://www.2checkout.com

Ok, let me try to explain myself better. On my new web site, when people decide to sign up, they will need to enter their name, address and credit card information. The code behind the web site will then need to create a record in the database with all this information PLUS derive a unique number to identify them. For example, if the person's name is Jennifer Lopez and their address is 123 Main Street, their ID# will be LOPEZ123. At this point, their credit card also needs to be verified and charged.

I guess another way I can say it is I am looking for a way to do automatic signup. With most CC processors I have researched, customers get redirected to THEIR (CC processor's) site where they enter all this information and then I get an email saying that a new order has been received. I would then need to use the information in the email to set up everything manually. I would like to avoid that manual process and set it up so that everything happens automatically.

Thanks!

The CC processors you have researched appear to be third party processors. You never have a true merchant account with them, you only use their services. As a result your customers are forced to leave your site to make payment. If you open a true merchant and use a gateway, like the ones mentioned above, you can integrate the payment process into your website. As a result your customer never have to leave your site. Naturally, while they are on your site you can do anything you want such as assigning them unique ID's.

Thanks stymiee and everyone who responded. I think I am starting to understand now that if I want to manipulate customer's information I need to accept credit cards myself rather than using a third-party processor.

Correct me if I am wrong here gang... but a cart system (many good free ones) can be modified simply enough to store ANY information you want to capture in YOUR DB as part of your sign up process.

Would that not be the ticket here? We do such info captures etc... all the time....

I am not completely sure what they're after?

This is true but I think he was more worried about customers leaving his site and him not being able to do some internal information processing as a result.

Most of the third party processors also have a passback routine. This means when the card procssing is complete you can pass back the client to a thank you page on your site.

Other benefits of third part processing are that your fraud protection is higher. Most of the third party set ups have a department that deals entirely with fraud prevention.

Another benefit is that clients can be made to feel more comfortable. Third party payment processors tend to have extremly secure systems in place to protect the client. As a designer I do not feel that I can convince anyone that I can be 100% confident that I can safeguard their data. People are scared of identity theft and of hackers getting at their credit card data. Using a third party hands off this responsability to so called security experts. Your clients can feel safer.

I am by no means saying that third party is the way to go I am just pointing out some of the benefits. Please temper this with the fact there are just as many negatives. You need to decide the best option for you and your clients.

Simon

Simon,

I see the benefits but do you think what I am trying to do is possible with a third-party processor? I need the processor to automatically signal my site that the CC was approved and a charge was posted and then my site will create an account for that person and otherwise manipulate their data as I described above. What I DO NOT want is to receive an email notification of the order and then have to put it in manually every time.

Thanks!
Mark.

By the way, I appreciate you taking time to help me! I realize this is a pretty boring topic. Thanks!

With 2checkout.com you can pass variables back to a script so I do not see why you can not do this. I have not tried it myself though. You are better off sending them an email and asking or looking at the faqs on their site.

Simon

I do this for a living and can recommend you to a processor that specializes in internet merchant accounts. Personally I concentrate more on retail store outlets that need hardware. My website is www.freemachine4u.com.

Please email me if you want the contact for CDC Commerce - the processor that specializes in internet merchant accounts. They are great people as well.

Regards,

Mike
ubc@cox.net

Well that's into the realm of custom programming to hook up you cart/processor as well as creating accounts.

I don't know of any 'off-the-shelf' solutions on that. When we have done things like that in the past, we always created a custom app to deal with it.