Understanding Payment Gateways
A common misconception when preparing to accept credit cards online is that a merchant account is all you will need from an outside vendor to accept payments. While this is necessary for the financial processing, a payment gateway is necessary to provide the technology to securely capture and transfer the credit card information from a website shopping cart to the merchant account. A payment gateway is the online equivalent to a credit card terminal used in a brick and mortar store to communicate card details and verify the card provided is active, and can be authorized for the amount of the purchase in real time.
One of the most important steps in launching a web-based business, product or application that accepts credit card payments is setting up your merchant account. Your Merchant Account Provider is one of the most important business relationships you’ll have, as this partner will process and fund your customer transactions.