Accept Credit Card Online

Considerations before you Accept Credit Cards Online

Processing Fees

All credit card merchant services come with a processing fee for each transaction, usually anywhere between one percent and three percent, depending on the card, the amount of the individual transaction, and your total volume of business. Many also charge additional monthly fees, depending on what kinds of services you might use, such as debit card processing, accepting checks online, integration with other features of your site, and fraud protection.

Fraud

In most cases of credit card fraud, it's the merchant who's stuck with the costs because consumer liability is typically limited in transactions where the card is not physically present. This is why you need to be careful about checking for warning signs of stolen or fraudulent cards. Remember that automated credit card approval only tells you whether or not the card has been reported stolen; it is not a guarantee that you will receive the payment.

Many merchants refuse to accept credit card online orders that are:

• Sent overseas. Many criminals place orders in countries other than their own because pursuing criminal charges overseas is usually many times more difficult than pursuing it domestically.
• Sent to PO boxes or other drop addresses. It's very easy to set these up anonymously so that by the time somebody discovers that the card was fraudulent, there's nobody there to trace.
• Without address verification. Most credit card processing software includes an Address Verification System (AVS) that tells you whether or not the address the order requests as the shipping address is listed as an authorized one on the credit card records.
• Without the Card Verification System number. This is a digit that is printed on the card but not encoded in the magnetic strip, so it's a way around credit card skimming machine fraud that steals data off physical card or off credit card receipts.

If your credit card system doesn't include an AVS, you can still call the credit card company to check that it's not been reported stolen and confirm the address.

• American Express 1-800-528-5200
• Discover Card 1-800-347-2000
• Visa or MasterCard 1-800-228-1122

Systems

For large-scale setups, you probably want a direct merchant account. However, if you don't have a huge volume of online sales or don't need advanced features, PayPal or Google Checkout both offer great convenience and easy integration.

PayPal

The best known option to let you accept credit cards online is PayPal. PayPal allows you to accept payments from virtually every credit card without doing more than setting up a PayPal account. It also integrates easily with most online shopping carts and auction sites.

Google Checkout

Google Checkout is a relative newcomer to the field but offers services very similar to PayPal, allowing you to accept a credit card online just by registering..