Im looking at setting up a site that will provide applications for training courses with credit card payment options.
Initially, I thought all that would be required would be to set up a merchant account with my bank, set up a secure gateway with a third party company, then create a simple script to generate an order id to send to the gateway.
The only problem with this is how do I go about receiving the application details in a secure manner?
Ive read a little about SSL and thought that the data can be encrypted from the client to the server but how do I get that info from the server to me in a secure way?
Secure transactions are very new to me so any advice would be greatly appreciated!

If possible, you could VPN to that server.

http://vpn.shmoo.com/vpn/FAQ.html#Q3:

The same principle applies. An SSL cert is
half and half. The server only provides half of the key,
the other half comes from the service where you got the key
(at least this is how Thawt does it).

You can still access the server and it'll still be secure.
If you need it to mail to you, shouldn't be a problem.

I'd be a bit careful about sending the sensitive data via unsecured email. Instead why nit set up a facility where you receive a notification of an order, but you actually go to your secure area to view the data.

I feel the same way... I guess if i was to set it up so that an email notification was sent I could then log in to the secure area, get the application details then process the credit card transaction manually therefore avoiding the gateway fees.