Paypal Adaptive(Chained) Payment with Rails

Question

It is known that PayPal supports Adaptive(Chained) payments where one buyer sends the money and it is processed using one API account holder and the money can be sent to multiple users.

My question is,

1. Does this approach also supports accepting credit card (for the buyer)?
2. Is it possible to capture the card details at our website and use the API (in the backend) without redirecting to PayPal website itself?

Here is my requirement... I am running a website where sellers can sell their products and buyers buy them. Seller sets the price and i get a commission

Eg. Person A sells Product P for $100. (My commission is 2%)

Person B buys P. and makes the payment in my website itself. Using Paypal API, i want to process B's credit card and charge him $100. Get my share of $2 and send rest of $98 to Person A.

thanks in advance,

Kannan R

Answer 1

Q1. YES it is possible to accept credit cards (PapPal Adaptive payments supports Guest Payments... where the user can enter their credit card details.

Q2. YES. In continuation of answer to Q1, the credit card details entered acts as the explicitly approved payment hence no need to redirect the sender to Paypal website for authorization.

http://www.paypal-labs.com/TechDocs/

This link explains things better, check out for the Guest Payments link..

Hope it helps.

rgds,
Sourcebits Team.

Answer 2

For Question #2:

While it is possible to capture the credit card details on your site, you should be aware that there is something called PCI Compliance, which is basically a set of rules you need to follow to ensure that your server and your software is secure.

It is not easy to meet PCI requirements on your own (time, consultant costs, regular inspections, understanding the rules etc.). And if the rules are violated or your server is hacked you could be fined hundreds of dollars/rupees per "lost" credit card details.

Search SO for some good information about this