Payment methods for an ASP.NET Web Application

Question

I want to add payment methods to my site, such as MasterCard or Payoneer. I don't know where to start, can someone give me an entry point? Is there an API for this?

Answer 1

Firstly, you need an Internet Merchant Account from your bank, this is where any money you take via card payments will end up. Now, each bank offers a variety of Merchant Accounts, aimed at different sized businesses and different risk levels, some will takex percentage of your revenue, some will take a flat fee, others will take a mixture of both.

Once you have a Merchant Account, you need a system to take credit card payments, AKA a Payment Gateway. There are again a number of these, just Google Payment Gateway (Authorize.Net and SecPay are 2 examples of these). Again Payment Gateways will take a percentage of any money that you process through them, some charge flat fees, some charge a percentage, others are a mix of both. Generally, there is a different charge for Credit Cards and Debit Cards.

The Payment Gateway will take all your Merchant Account details and set everything up so that, money processed through them ends up in your Merchant Account. However, you still need to have a form for customers to fill in and submit with their card details.

Integration of the payment gateway to your site, and there are 3 methods that are generally available:

1. You redirect your customers to the payment gateway, usually, you've had to call a web service beforehand to tell the payment gateway how much you want to charge the customer, what items, delivery charge, tax etc. When the customer arrives at the payment gateway, it's all covered with the payment gateway providers logo and details, so that the customer knows that they're paying via a reputable service.
2. Same as above, however you pay extra to the Payment Gateway provider so that you can customize the look of the payment forms (aka White Labeling).
3. The Payment Gateway provider supplies you with a web service API and you provide all the credit card payment forms, calling the API when required. You'll also need an SSL certificate for this.

This is great if you're taking a few thousand-a-week and want to provide your customers with a seamless payment journey. However, this can be costly if it's only a few hundred-a-week that you are taking. There are also PCI (related to risk and fraud) and chargeback issues to consider.

Paypal can make it quicker for you to start trading online as you don't need an Internet Merchant Account from your bank. All the rest still applies tho.