So what is a credit card payment gateway?

A payment gateway in essence allows you to do a credit card transaction from your website. The most common use for payment gateways are for the following types of websites:

-  Online shops / E-commerce shops
-  Subscription / Forum websites

From a technical aspect, developers such as ourselves would “integrate” or “emerge” a client’s website with the payment gateway to ensure that a credit card transaction can be processed and suitable information on the transaction is captured for future reference for both client, payment gateway and purchaser.

What to consider when choosing a payment gateway:

Merchant Account or Not?

The first thing that we chat to our clients about is whether they have a merchant facility / account. Merchant accounts are often more likely to be available with clients who have a certain income being processed per month and the criteria for this would vary from the various banks.

Certain gateways are available for those with a merchant accounts and other gateways are available for those companies / individuals without merchants accounts e.g. small business owners, small transactional type websites, start up businesses or the individual on the street.

Payment Structures and Fees

Each payment gateway has their own payment / fee structure. Most have a monthly fee and then take a percentage per transaction. In some cases, once you have processed a certain amount, the transaction percentage can be decreased to make it more profitable for you, the client.

So, one of the most important things to check on, is the fee structures and workout which one will best suit your budget and needs.

Payment Processing & Fraud

Although not necessarily that important, it’s worth finding out how long the money is held for by the payment gateway before it gets transferred across to your bank account. This can sometime affect certain companies who need to ship things immediately.

In addition, one must check the protection you have against fraud and processing that potentially could happen. You want to know what protection you do / don’t have, so make sure to ask.

SSL

SSL standards for “Secure Sockets Layer” and basically ensures your data is secure when capturing your information. Most payment gateways take care of the SSL on their side and the purchasers generally have to capture their credit card details on the payment gateway’s site. In some cases though, a payment gateway may require the purchaser to capture credit card information on the client / your website therefore you will require SSL to be implemented on your website. SSL can be identified by https:// in the website address and a certificate which is usually displayed at the bottom of your browser. This also adds to the purchasers experience whereby they feel they can purchase online securely and safely.

Credit Cards Accepted

Make sure that the credit cards accepted by the payment gateway are the credit cards that you think / assume will be most used. If you target market, for example, are people in the United States, you want to ensure people can purchase with American Express cards. Other examples of cards to consider are The Diners Club and Discovery cards.

Make sure you look into whether additional transaction fees are incurred if accepting these particular cards.

Who to Use

There are a number of payment gateways in South Africa, but here are a few that we have worked with and the ones we would suggest you consider using for your website:

PayPal

Probably the most well-known of the lot, PayPal, has recently partnered up with FNB(Fist National Bank), and has launched in South Africa. Read more about Paypal in South Africa

Iveri

Iveri is offered by Nedbank. For this particular gateway, SSL on your website will be required as credit card capturing is done on the client’s website opposed to on Nedbank / Iveri’s side. No merchant account is required in order to use this particular gateway.

Visit http://www.iveri.co.za for more information.

Paygate

Paygate is very well known as it’s used by companies who have a merchant account with the banks. Paygate has been around since 1996 and is therefore being used extensively on websites around the country. Credit cards accepted include Mastercard, Visa, American Express and Diners Club. Credit card capturing takes place on Paygate’s website, therefore no SSL is specifically required on your / client’s website.

Visit http://www.paygate.co.za for more information.

VCS

VCS has also become increasingly popular over the last few years. You require a merchant account to use VCS and no SSL as the credit card info is captured on the VCS website. Credit cards accepted include Mastercard, Visa, American Express and Diners Club.

Visit http://www.vcs.co.za for more information.

Pricetag

Pricetag has been running for approximately 9 years and from our experience has been used with small business / new businesses. Depending on how one chooses to integrate with Pricetag, SSL may be required – you will need to speak to your developers to ensure you know the best way forward. No merchant account is required to use Pricetag.

MyGate

Another payment gateway that requires you having a merchant account is MyGate. MyGate has a few offerings that range from the standard online payment gateway facility PLUS the following features:

• Recurring Billing which can be useful for monthly and annual subscription based websites.
• Debit Card processing
• Credit card fraud detection services

Other services are currently being developed.

Visit http://www.mygate.co.za for more information.

2Checkout

As we have already mentioned above, PayPal is not available in South Africa. You can sign up for a PayPal account and pay for goods and services online by linking your account to your credit card. It is really convenient and handy as you don’t have to enter your credit card information every time you make a purchase.

There is however a new service offer by 2checkout.com that allows South Africans to indirectly accept PayPal payments. It basically works as follows. You sign-up with 2checkout.com and choose how you would like to receive payments. You can choose between check or wire transfer. If you choose wire transfer you can link your bank account to 2checkout.com and receive payments both locally and abroad. Here is where the accepting PayPal payments comes in. Once you choose 2checkout as your payment gateway, your clients will be presented with 2checkout payment page . On this page your client has the option of paying you with their existing PayPal account or credit card if they don’t have one.

That’s it. Finally South African’s have a way to receive PayPal payments thanks to 2checkout.com