Chapter 11Working with Credit Card

Methods of Processing Credit Cards

Preparing for Cyber Cash

Authoring a Credit card Transaction

Methods of Processing Credit Cards

Three Different Types:Offsite Payment Processors

Payment Terminal Solutions

Component Based Solutions

Offsite Payment Processors

Several companies enable you to link to their Web site and they will process the credit card transaction.

They host the payment page that prompts the customer to enter credit card information.

After the customer has completed the payment transaction, the customer is sent back to your web site.

Advantages:

Very Easy to setup.

Need not use SSL.

No Need to take special precautions to maintain the privacy of the customer’s credit card information.

All this is done by other web site.

Disadvantages

Lose control over the appearance of you payment page.

Never collect credit card information directly from the customer.

If something goes wrong with the offsite payment processor- ex: web site goes down- the problem is out of your hands and you can do nothing about it. Ex iBill

Payment Terminal Solution

Ex: www.icverify.comIt contains an easy to use interface for authorizing & settling credit card transactions.Launch the program, accept the credit card information and the program authorizations the transaction.It dose not work over the internet. Use the program with modem.When authorize or settle a credit card transaction the program connects to your processor over the phone line and completes the transaction.

Not recommend for real time processing.

Suited for processing credit card transactions in batches.

Database information should be converted to CSV files.To do this SQL Server uses Data Transformation Services & MS Access use MS Access Export.

Advantages

Cheapest Solutions for processing Credit Cards.

Use normal phone line & not internet.

Bank charges much lower fees.

Component Based Solution

Provides greatest flexibility over processing credit cards.

Can write ASP scripts for authorize, capture & refund credit card information.

Ex: Cybercash & VeriFone’s vPos software.

Advantage

Advantages:Have complete control over credit card transaction.The customer need not leave you web site.Can be processed real time over internet.

Disadvantages:More Expensive as they require the bank to setup a custom Internet Gateway.Have to write custom scripts which is time consuming.

Preparing for Cybercash

Three requirements of Cybercash: Open credit card merchant account. Register as a merchant at the Cybercash web

site. Download and install the necessary software

for communicating with Cybercash.

Opening a Credit Card Merchant Account

Must open credit card merchant account with an acquiring financial institution.

Acquiring financial institutions will be banks.

Acquiring financial institutions work with the third party processor to process credit card transactions and deposit money into merchant’s account.

Before selecting check for bank supporting CyberCash.

Banks may charge any of these fees:Application fee, Setup fee, Transaction fee,

Monthly minimum fee.A discount rate

Other than Bank fees the Cybercash charges additional setup, transaction fees over and above the bank fees.

Registering at Cybrcash

Cybercash will lead you through the registration process in a series of HTML Forms.To register go to: http://amps.cybercash.com/Asked for following information:The legal name of our businessYour doing business AS nameYour Business Address. Contact information, including phone number & email address

After registering, you will be given CyberCash ID (CCID), hash secret & merchant key.This information is needed when you install the CyberCash software.Download the CyberCash Merchant Connection Kit(MCK) and the Cybercash documentation..The MCK contains the components you need to communicate with CyberCash to process credit card transactions.Contains sample scripts which are written in PERL & not in ASP. MCK Version is 3.2.0.4.

Its not yet Live. All transactions are performed in test mode.To go live, log into the cybercash Merchant Control Panel and select the Going live option.Merchant Control Panel is accessed at the URL:https://amps.cybercash.com

Installing CyberCash Software

After downloading MCK, you need to install it.

Need to run two installation program:

Install MCK itself.

Execute the build merchant installation program from start, programs, CyberCash Merchant Connection Kit.

Enter Follwing information to complete the installation program:

Fully qualified domain name of your computer.Your CyberCash ID (CCID) and hash secret.Name of your store & customer service phone number.Your Merchant KeyURL of your secure server.

Must specify the computer language you want to use with cybercash. Choice is C PERL or ASP.Installation program Adds two virtual directories to your web site. One is mck-shared and other is given the same name as your store.They contain the configuration files that cybercash needs to process credit card transaction and some sample ASP scripts. Installs most important file named merchant_conf which configuration information specific to your CyberCash account. It is normal text file viewed on Notepad.

Installs two important components: the MessageBlock and the Socket components. It is used in ASP script to communicate with the Cybercash service.After installing, test your installation by launching web browser and open the following URL:https://ww.yourdomain.com/yourstorename/mck-htdocs/test-mck.html.Will open a test page that enables to test various functions of cybercash.

Authorizing a credit card Transaction:

Two Steps involved in transferring money from customer’s credit card account to merchant account: Authorize Capture

To authorize a credit card transaction, you the cybercash MessageBlock and Socket components.These are ActiveX Component, that can be used in ASP in the same way as you use Ad Rotator & Browser Capabilities Components.

The MessageBlock component represents a message that you either send or receive from the cybercash service.Before authorizing a transaction, you load the MessageBlock component with list of values like customer credit card number etc. to the MessageBlock before you send it.The Socket Component is responsible for sending the message to the CyberCash service. It’s a standard WinSock component.

Settling Card Transactions

After authorizing credit card transaction, you must capture and settle the transaction for the money to be transferred from the customer’s account to your merchant account.

Depends on arrangement made with your acquiring financial institute.

Three different processing models for

capturing and settling transaction:

AuthCapture – transactions are automatically captured, when they are authorized.Auth/PostAuthCapture – Capturing is done as separate operation. Is intended for use when a product/service is not immediately delivered to the customer.Terminalcapturing - includes two additional steps:Must be marked to be included in a batch.Batch must be sent to the processor for settlement.