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I have a general question about accepting credit card payements.

Here is my situation:

I have a website which gives the posibility to our clients to publish some adds on it. The add is first received and checked internaly by an add editor. Then, we are asking the client for the payement and when the payement is received, the add is published.

My goal is to give the possibility to our clients to pay with their credit card. For example, send them the invoice by email with the link (or button) to a webpage where they could introduce their CC number et all needed information. This page can be created on our website.

I have read some articles about the onLine payement and sow that there is 2 main possibilities: 

Use a third party merchant
Use my own merchant account

Which one of those two solutions are better in your opinion, are ther advantages - disadvantages ?

Is there another solution except those two?

What about the solution to use my own merchant account? Complicated to implement ?

Thank you very much.

Milos Cuculovic
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1 Answers1

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Unless you have a lot of resources available to comply with the PCI DSS standards ( https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/ ), use a third party. Much less hassle.

podiluska
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  • Thank you podiluska, seems as a logic answer. But, is it realy complex to create and implement your own marchant account. I am asking that because the transaction fees are then less compared to those used with a third party marchand. – Milos Cuculovic Jul 12 '12 at 08:19
  • Yes, they are. But how much time is implementing a compliant secure system going to cost you? How many transactions are you processing? And how much would a breach cost...? – podiluska Jul 12 '12 at 08:28
  • Here are some numbers: annual revenue: 3,922,348 USD Let say that 50% of them will be processed by credit cards, also allmost 2,000,000 USD. Each transaction is unfear 500 USD, also we have something like 4000 payements per year of 500 USD. – Milos Cuculovic Jul 12 '12 at 08:33
  • What I would do is read through the compliance standards, and sum up all the costs that each element is going to involve, and then compare that to the increased transaction costs. Then I'd read about the $41M fine to TJX for a credit card breach, and use a third party :) – podiluska Jul 12 '12 at 08:47
  • I am not understanding you : Then I'd read about the $41M fine to TJX for a credit card breach... – Milos Cuculovic Jul 12 '12 at 08:58
  • Oh, ok, i sow the info on the internet. Hm, I am thinking now that the est is to use a third parrty for this. Do you have any good proposals. There are a lot of companies on the internet, I found something as Google checkout, WorldPay, authorize.net etc – Milos Cuculovic Jul 12 '12 at 09:03
  • That depends where you are located and your specific requirements, I think, and I have no particular favourite – podiluska Jul 12 '12 at 09:17
  • Location: Switzerland and payement through email invoices. – Milos Cuculovic Jul 12 '12 at 09:20