Online Payment Gateway
In the last decade, the Internet has gone from being a novelty for computer geeks and university students to play with to perhaps the single most powerful force in consumer economics today. Online startups like eBay, Amazon, Monster.com and similar websites have made literally billions of dollars, and oversee millions every day in transferring funds. Smaller websites from around the country and around the globe take their piece of the money tree too, making their owners handsome livings and allowing them to work comfortably out of their homes for good salaries and great profits.
One of the biggest problems many people have with buying products or services online is the possibility of fraud and identity theft. If a customer is shopping on a small business web site and is asked to enter credit card information, he or she may hesitate simply because the business is small and predators lurk around every corner. They’ll be far more likely to make a financial interaction with a company like this if that transaction takes place through a reliable third party – and that’s where online payment gateways come in. Merchant services like PayPal and related products allow merchants to accept online payments without ever having to deal with the credit card information and billing process itself.
A similar service in the real world is provided by POS (Point of Sale) terminals of the sort you see in retail outlets that allow customers to pay with credit or debit cards. Those terminals are enabled to process secure encrypted information and allow merchants to accept payments through credit card companies, making the transfer of funds simple and easy to process. Online payment gateways are essentially software versions of those scanners, and make online payments simple and worry free.
Most online payment gateways and related merchant services use a secure coding system with a simple HTML interface. What that means is that, with a simple HTML script, you can reference secure servers at the online payment gateway and cause them to run their own far more secure code to transfer funds directly to your bank account. When you sign up for a business account with these online payment gateways, your first step will be to register your financial information. This may include, for instance, adding credit card information for validation purposes, and linking bank accounts to allow direct transfer of funds.
Once you’ve validated your merchant account, you’ll then have access to a block of HTML code you can paste directly into your web site. From there, it’s easy – the customer logs on to your website, browses your products, and decides on one or a few to ‘take to the counter,’ so to speak. Your site proclaims at the top which services you use, and if it is reputable, the customer can be assured of a safe and secure transaction. Funds are transferred from the customer’s credit card, through the online payment gateway, and into your bank account. Standard protocol is to take a very small percentage – usually only a few percent – from the transaction for the online payment gateway. So much commerce occurs over the Internet that merchant services can offer very, very good rates and still make a fortune.
So how many ways can a customer pay you when it’s time to buy? Credit card only? Bank account transfer? The answer, of course, depends on which merchant services you decide to use. Most merchant services and online payment gateways accept credit or debit card transfers as well as offering physical addresses for cash or money orders to be mailed to. Again, with a trustworthy middleman involved in the buying and selling process, your loyal customers will be far more likely to think of investing their valuable time and money in your company in order to receive your goods or services. Some online payment gateways also offer direct bank account transfers – the equivalent of writing a check electronically. Direct bank account transfers are even safer than mailing a check or using a credit card online.
After the transaction between customer and online payment gateway occurs, a small percentage of the cost is taken out of the transfer to pay off the online payment gateways. This is in the form of a gratuity, or tip: rather than simply taking the money directly out of the transfer (so that the receiver gets less than the buyer sent) the money is calculated by percentage and added on to the price the buyer sends. So, if someone buys a hundred dollar computer chip on line and sends one hundred dollars, he might be charged an extra dollar or two for the transaction, while the seller will still receive one hundred dollars.
Most online payment gateways work by allowing you to have the equivalent of an online bank account in your name: generally, these accounts are much easier to set up than a normal bank account and require much less personal information – it’s completely possible, for instance, to set up an online payment gateway account with a false name and have money sent to it. The problem lies in getting that money out. There are several way s of getting money out of an online payment gateway account. One is simply to have them mail a check. If you do that, the check will be sent to whatever address you specified when you were setting up the account, and will be filled out to the order of whatever name you specified.
Another method is to do a direct bank account transfer. You can actually verify your account by having it linked directly with your actual bank account, allowing you to do withdrawals and deposits from the comfort of your computer. If your online payment gateway account is linked to a real bank account, your online account will be ‘verified’ – something nearly all small business operators have done for the sake of getting more business.
Some online payment gateways, like PayPal for instance, go one step further and even offer debit cards which let you withdraw directly from your online payment account without having to use the bank account withdrawal, check order, or other merchant services usually involved in getting your money out of the system.
If you’re a small business owner or merchant conducting business over the world wide marketplace of the Internet, you’re going to probably be exchanging money on line. That, of course, is what these online payment gateways are all about – but how exactly do you get people to trust you? There are a few ways. The simplest way is simply to go all out and get verified. There are a number of steps required to become verified for sales in most online payment gateways, and may range from anything between linking it with a secure bank account to supplying detailed business and insurance information. Whatever the method, once you’re registered as a verified small business online payment gateway user, you get to put that information on your website – customers who see that logo know then that you’re a trustworthy institution, and will be far more willing – and likely – to send their well earned money to you.
Of course, maybe you don’t even care about setting up a small business. Maybe all you really need to do when it comes to online merchant services is simple – buying stuff. You’ve paid money on big names like eBay or Amazon.com, but you’re not sure if you want to risk giving out credit card information to a smaller company. How can you know if they’re legit? The first thing to do is see if they’re using an online payment gateway. Gateways like PayPal are very secure – check out the online payment gateway and see if it measures up to standards.
The next step is to make sure you’re not being scammed. If a website says its using an online payment gateway, make sure it actually is – real online payment gateways often redirect you to the payment site, which will have a different URL than the store site. Pay attention to the details and you’ll be far less likely to lose your money in the long run.
Generally, once you’ve assured yourself of the veracity of a websites payment claims, you’re free to pay in any number of ways. The most common and easiest way is simply to use a credit card or debit card to foot the bill. You enter the card number, your billing information, and security number, and the funds move – and bingo, you have your new picture or book or movie or computer game or whatever it is you’re shelling out cash to buy online. It’s as simple as that. Online payment gateways are fast, easy to use, and very secure; so don’t worry about using them when the time comes. Go ahead – get online and start shopping today.
One of the problems with the modern world of computing and the Internet is its vulnerability to a new kind of criminal – the identity thief. If you’re not careful, criminals can get a hold of your financial and personal information and wreak havoc. People have lost a lot of money online simply by using their credit card numbers in unwise ways and getting that information stolen and used online by those who know a little too much for their own good about the way the online marketplace works. If you’re smart, you’ll know how to protect yourself from thieves like these and transfer money in a safe and secure online payment gateway.
Some of the simplest things you can do are also some of the most effective. Make sure your virus definitions are up to date – a lot of identity theft occurs simply because the victim has a few spying viruses on his or her computer just waiting to capture that credit card number or social security number and email to an unethical receiver. You can also make sure you have a spyware blocker – many are free, and the commercial versions don’t cost much. Just having a basic firewall will do wonders for keeping your information safe and secure.
So if it’s that easy to set up on online payment gateway, what are some good ways to start making money online? The possibilities are endless, as evidenced by the number of online markets already in existence. The trick will be to find a market not already covered or inadequately covered by existing web sites and online entrepreneurs and other merchants, and then exploit that market to your own financial advantage. You could, for instance, create a popular web site like YouTube or Fark.com and sell advertising – many web sites make money simply by having ads on their sites and making money every time someone clicks on one.
One of the biggest users of online payment gateways is online auction service like eBay. Because commerce on these sites takes place from person to person rather than from a single large retailer, a secure and easy financial transfer solution is even more important. eBay solves that problem by using PayPal – the two are allied, in fact, in revolutionizing the online marketplace. Both supply merchants with amazing merchant services – there are plenty of people out there who actually make their entire livings selling items on eBay. If you have a lot of things you’d like to get rid of which you think may be valuable, why not look into putting them out on the online marketplace? Millions of people look at sites like eBay every day – chances are, if someone out there wants what you have, they’ll be willing to pay plenty for it. If you’ve got a chance at all of making money on something you own, selling it online just might be it. Check it out – see how much similar items are going for and decide if it’s worth it.