How would I do this?

[Xylina]

I would like to be able to set up a secure way for our clients to pay their accounts online using visa/mastercard. Can anyone tell me the easiest way to go about this, basically, where do I start first. Do I need a shopping cart even though we aren't selling a product as such, just receiving payments on account online.

Thanks,

Jennifer

[snaip]

Cox,

You will need a merchant account. Now most merchant account allows you to either accept payment (credit card info) on your site itself, given that you have an SSL certificate. Else you can simply send the client to the merchant account site's payment form for payment processing. You can consider Paypal, but Paypal doesn't accept credit card from certain countries. So perhaps you can try Verisign. Here is a nice article to get you started:

http://www.tamingthebeast.net/articles2/back-end-ecommerce.htm

[StevenAllen]

You will need access to a gateway and a merchant account.

[Lydia]

Hi Jennifer,

I've been using PayPal and have been happy with it. One thing I appreciate about it is that it gives customers the option to pay directly from their bank account. Using PayPal would also eliminate the need for a shopping cart. You could just add their icon to your Web site, and by clicking on it visitors to your site would be directed to a page where they would be instructed on how to proceed. One disadvantage is that customers would need to set up a PayPal account prior to submitting payment to you, but there is no charge for this.

I hope this helps,

Lydia

[OLYMPOS]

Hi Jennifer,

for more info, please have a look at http://www.authorize.net/

We programmed one of the authorized 85 shopping cards, to find at

http://www.authorize.net/solutions/merchantsolutions/merchantservices/shoppingcartdirectory/