What is a Payment Gateway
If you conduct any of your business online, you probably already know what a payment gateway is. But what if you’re just thinking about an online business and haven’t taken that next step yet? What is a payment gateway? Maybe you have a payment gateway, but you aren’t very sure how it works. What makes it different from a regular merchant account? Sometimes the differences and technical aspects can be too confusing to understand. This article clarifies the technology behind a payment gateway. The more you understand about it, the better you can decide if you want or need a payment gateway and what you want out of one.
A payment gateway is a separate e-commerce service that authorizes payments for your e-business. A payment gateway serves as an intermediary between your online shopping cart and all the financial networks involved in the transaction including the credit card issuer. It also encrypts and decrypts all the data in the transaction to keep your consumer’s information safe.
How does it work? As soon as the consumer hits the “submit” button, giving you all their credit card information, the consumer’s web browser encrypts all the information being sent to your web server using SSL encryption. SSL, or Secure Socket Layer, are cryptographic conventions that provide security for your consumer’s information when sending it over the internet. It is designed to prevent eavesdropping and tampering. SSL authentication is unilateral, meaning the client can know the server’s identity, but the server cannot know the client’s. The client remains anonymous.
When this information is received it is then forwarded to your payment gateway. The payment gateway forwards the information to the payment processor who then forwards the information to the credit card association. If it is a American Express or Discover card, the processor acts as the issuing bank and immediately provides an accepted or declined response, otherwise the card company forwards the information to the correct issuing bank. The issuing bank receives the authorization request and sends back a response code. This code not only includes whether or not the transaction was accepted, but also the reason why it was declined.
The processor forwards the response to the payment gateway. The payment gateway then forwards the response to the website where it is translated and forwarded to you and the consumer. Not only is this entire process encrypted by SSL, it also takes two to three seconds. At the end of the day, you submits your approved authorizations to your payment processor in a “batch” to be settled. The processor then deposits the approved funds into your bank account. From the “submit” button to your bank account, the process can take up to three days.
From start to finish, International Card Service provides your with a quick and secure way to process credit card payments online. Whether you’re and e-business, online retailer, or a “brick and click” service, our payment gateways make sure your funds are quickly transferred to your account safely while keeping your customer’s information secure.
- Our easy application process takes about 5 minutes
- Accounts are usually approved within 24 hours.
- Save time & eliminate hours of bookwork each week as QuickBooks does the accounting for you.
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