AOI Computer Services - Merchant Account Overview

Merchant Accounts

A Merchant Account allows you to process your customers credit cards over the internet, or through a traditional retail store. Besides a merchant account most people will also need an eCommerce site as well as some sort of shopping cart software (we include ours FREE with both types of eCommerce accounts). Below we offer an overview of the 3 primary ways credit cards are processed over the net:

1) Offline Off-line Processing is the least expensive way to set up your web site. With off-line, a secured page is not required. Merchants may post card symbols on their site and state that they accept credit cards for payment.

However, the consumer must contact the merchant either by phone or by fax in order to give the merchant their credit card information.

Credit card info is not allowed to be sent online by forms on an unsecured page, neither will any legitimate processing bank allow it to be e-mailed through unsecured means. Off-line processing is not recommended for the majority of product oriented web sites, but in the case of certain products and services, it may be the preferred method, at least initially.

2. Secured Page with Manual Entry Secured page with manual entry means that the merchant has a secured page order form on their web site where the consumer can leave their credit card information. Merchants can then, at their convenience, retrieve this information and manually key the info into a standard or software terminal.

This method is preferred if the merchant anticipates not being able to easily fulfill orders either same or next day.

With this option, if the merchant's time or inventory will not allow for immediate fulfillment of orders, the card information can be held without charging the card until such time as the order can be fulfilled.

If you as a merchant are uncertain as to whether or not you will be able to fulfill, in a timely fashion, the high order demand that the web can produce, then we recommend a 'manual entry' option until you are more familiar with the day-to-day realities of internet processing for your particular service or product (even if you have prior on-line experience with another, but not same type, business).

3. Real Time Processing - Real time processing is recommended for experienced on-line merchants who anticipate no problem with fulfillment of orders within 48 hours.

With Real Time processing, the consumer's card is charged as they leave their information on the merchant's site, in "real time", thus orders that can not be fulfilled in a timely fashion become extremely vulnerable to chargeback, return and retrieval problems.

Simply stated, Real time processing is recommended where there is little or no possibility of order fulfillment problems. If a fulfillment problem is likely, then Real time processing is not a good idea.

Very sound, very simple and often, very ignored and overlooked advice. This advice concerning Real Time does not come from those who market merchant accounts and/or Real Time processing options... this advice comes from those who answer 24hr help telephones for merchant account processing banks.

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Modified 4/4/01