You might be asking yourself the payment gateway definition. If you’re not sure, read on. First, this article will explain the basic structure of a payment gateway, including its fees, fraud protection, transaction limits, and other essential details. Then, if you’re looking to start accepting credit card payments, read on! Keeping your customers and making money simultaneously is a breeze.
Paying customers
A payment gateway can make your life easier when processing payments. They don’t require a separate checkout process, so you won’t have to worry about security and data security. Your customers can pay on your website without entering credit card information. You must choose the right payment gateway for your business.
A payment gateway sends the credit card information to the acquiring bank. Then, the acquiring bank will process the payment. Payment gateways enable you to accept card payments online. They also make it possible to accept payments from card-not-present customers. Therefore, payment gateways are essential to secure e-commerce transactions.
Getting paid
Getting paid with a payment gateway can be a hassle if you don’t have the right solution. For low-volume businesses, monthly fees and high set-up costs are not worth it. A payment gateway with recurring payments can save you valuable time and effort. You’ll need a merchant account, which you can use to store the credit card numbers of your clients. Choose a payment gateway that offers multi-currency and multiple languages so that you can accept payments from many different countries.
Once your payment gateway has been set up, you’ll need to set up a business bank account. Although you can use your bank account to process payments, opening a business-specific account is essential. Setting up a separate bank account will simplify your accounting and make it easier to track the financial health of your business. You’ll also need proof of business ownership, a business plan, and other documents to prove your business is legitimate.
Fraud protection
When choosing a payment gateway, it’s essential to consider how much protection it provides against fraud. Some payment gateways have sophisticated fraud prevention tools, including Address Verification Services, which verify that the billing address matches the information on file at the bank. Others use a lookup table to validate the buyer’s overall risk. A payment gateway’s fraud protection features should be tailored to the type of business you’re operating.
The most advanced fraud prevention services use sophisticated rule-based transaction scrubbers to identify and block fraudulent transactions. They can be set to reject or decline transactions based on their merchant’s rules. These tools are not as sophisticated as dedicated third-party solutions and can make it challenging to switch payment gateways later. Nevertheless, fraud prevention tools are an excellent way to reduce chargebacks and protect your online business from potential harm.
Transaction limits
A payment gateway may have transaction limits. These limits are designed to prevent fraud by setting an upper limit for the number of transactions a merchant can process each month or per individual transaction. Usually, an online store can set its limit for particular transactions, but the processing system may reject transactions that exceed this amount. In addition, some processing companies limit all transactions or for certain types of merchants. For example, a merchant selling a high-risk product may set a transaction limit of $10,000.
The transaction limits of a payment gateway should be high enough to prevent unauthorized transactions. In addition, the payment service provider should configure their notification system to take immediate action if a transaction exceeds its limit. This way, if a fraudulent transaction occurs, they can take immediate action to minimize the impact of the fraud.
Cost
The cost of a payment gateway depends on several factors. If you are looking for an e-commerce payment gateway that will integrate with your website, you should choose one PCI DSS 3.0 compliant. You should also select a gateway that offers APIs and technical support, as this will facilitate third-party integrations. In addition, a payment gateway must accept various payment methods and be PCI DSS 3.0 compliant, ensuring customer confidentiality. Finally, it should be flexible enough to handle multiple payments, including online and offline costs.
Payment gateway pricing should be factored into the total cost of the solution. It generally comprises a monthly service fee and a per-transaction fee. The latter price is usually low compared to the former, as the lower the per-transaction cost, the better. Some payment gateways may also be free with the purchase of the shopping cart and credit card processors. However, you should remember that payment gateway costs are always included in the overall price of the other products.
