But what exactly does a payment gateway do?



A payment gateway acts as an intermediary between a merchant's website (or shopping cart) and the financial networks (credit card etc.) involved with the transaction. It also allows the merchant to electronically submit payment transactions to the financial network via the internet. It works both ways ? for a merchant customer to safely and securely make a purchase on the internet, and for the merchant to safely and securely receive their funds. Authorize.Net, specifically, utilizes a very seamless and easy process to accomplish this ? all compliant with maintaining the highest industry security standards. Without a payment gateway system, credit card transactions over the internet are open to fraud and many other dangers. A payment gateway is basically like an EFTPOS terminal in cyberspace, and in many ways can actually be safer transaction.

Authorize.Net's credit card transaction process ensures all of this. Authorize.Net will check for validity when a credit card payment comes through, encrypt the data and transaction details and send it to the necessary institutions. The transaction goes to the merchant's bank, and then is passed onto the credit card interchange system. The interchange system routes the transaction to the appropriate credit card issuer who approves or declines the transaction. The results go back to the merchant's bank, and then back to Authorize.Net. Authorize.Net stores the transaction results and sends it back to the merchant and the customer.

The appropriate funds are then immediately transferred into the merchant's bank, who then deposit the funds into the merchant's bank account. This process, as can be seen, ensures that the transaction is validated by all parties, which contributes to security measures. Despite this, it can take only about 3-4 seconds ? highly convenient for the merchant, and the merchant's client or customer.

So Authorize.Net gives your website or shopping cart the ability to authorize and settle credit card transactions in a highly secure, real time environment. Most major hosting companies are compatible with Authorize.Net. It also has a virtual terminal feature that allows you to manually process credit card transactions ? by phone, mail, or face to face orders.

Authorize.Net has a long standing relationship with all the major credit card institutions, providing a service for all major credit card holders, and is seen throughout the transaction processing industry as a very professional company. Its solutions are easy to integrate for merchants and clients ? being compatible with most major shopping carts. Everything possible is done to ensure security and validity of every transaction.

The Authorize.Net system is browser-based, so you can utilize it and monitor it from any computer, anywhere. As such, no installation is necessary, and Authorize.Net provides its customers with 24/7 live support. It will also store your entire transaction history, allows for multiple user logins and has an e-check service for those that need it. Overall, Authorize.Net offers a quick, affordable, and highly secure processing service.