How The Payment Gateway Works
How the Secure Payment Gateway Works
For many small and large businesses, understanding the basics of setting up a credit card processing account can be an overwhelming and daunting task. Throw in keywords like “Payment Processor”, “Payment Gateway”, “PCI Compliance“, and “Merchant Account” and it may seem impossible to learn how the actual payment gateway works. Below, we will take you step by step on how credit card processing works from beginning to end. Understanding basic terms will help you feel confident when you decide which secure payment gateway works best for you!
Before Beginning
When you set up a credit card processing account, you should take some time to put together a couple of months worth of statements from your bank. You will want to include your credit card processing statements if you currently have a merchant account and are looking for better pricing. Expect your potential merchant services provider to question you on your sales volume. They will want to know sales volume so they can quote you the best pricing for your new Merchant Account.
Understanding a Merchant Account?
A Merchant Account is all the processes that happen when processing a credit card. It delivers all the information to various institutions for approvals. A merchant account is also responsible for moving funds to your bank. A merchant account is also responsible for depositing funds generated via credit card sales into your preferred bank account.
Understanding the Payment Gateway
Now that you understand the basics of a Merchant Account, let’s learn “how the payment gateway works.” The Payment Gateway is primarily responsible for the security of the information transferred by the Merchant Account. It helps to visualize the payment gateway as a body guard for your credit card information. It picks up the information at point “A” and securely relays it to point “B”. When it reaches point “B” the merchant account either approves or denies the information.
So How Does It All Work?
A typical credit card transaction goes through the following steps:
A customer decides to purchase a product in your retail brick and mortar store. When they swipe the information it is submits the personal credit card information.
The payment gateway security will pick up the credit card information and begin to route it to your merchant account and payment processor.
Your merchant account payment processor will receive this information and start the process of sending the information to the appropriate parties to start the authorization, capture and eventually settlement process.
The credit card payment provider will then route the information to the bank that issued the credit card.
The issuing bank will check to make sure that the customer has the appropriate funds in their account and then send an approval or denial back to the payment processor.
The Merchant Account will send the approval or denial to the Secure Payment Gateway.
The payment gateway does two things. It stores the transaction securely on its server and it will also send an approval or denial back to the website.
Fees
One Time Set Up
Typically, a merchant account provider can charge a one-time set up fee (between $100 – $500). SecureGlobalPay will waive this fee.
Month to Month
It is not unusual for your merchant account provider to charge a small monthly fee to help maintain the merchant account. These fees average between $20 – $50 per month. However we can make special arrangements where you don’t have to pay a monthly fee.
Per Transaction
There is generally a small per transaction fee charged for each transaction (unless you choose to have a larger month to month fee) and a percentage fee, typically between 2.00-3.00% for MasterCard/Visa and American Express.
SecureGlobalPay Fees
We will do everything we can to get you the best deal possible. Call us today and we will waive all one time set up fees and treat you the way you deserve to be treated. We can also offer a really great percentage fee as low as 0.35% in most cases for Mastercard, Visa and American Express. CONTACT US TODAY!
