The process of accepting electronic payments can get complicated. Depending on the method, there can be many different components involved and can be quite confusing to merchants about what exactly they need to properly and securely accept electronic payments from their customers. One very important aspect of the electronic payment process is the payment gateway.
What is a Payment Gateway?
A payment gateway is an online service provider that authorizes electronic payments and processes them with an entity’s merchant account. Merchants can use payment gateways to transfer payment information between a payment portal (such as an eCommerce shopping cart, mobile payment, or other internet-based transactions) and the front-end processor or acquiring bank. Gateways also provide a virtual terminal that allows a merchant to securely log in to enter credit card numbers and have the website’s shopping-cart connect to the gateway via an API to allow for real-time processing.
How Does a Payment Gateway Work?
The payment gateway moves the customer’s card data to the merchant acquiring bank who then authorizes the transaction through communication with the processor and issuing bank. The processing of the payment is completed using HTTPS protocol, which securely transmits the data to the different parties involved. In addition to processing transactions in real-time, payment gateways can also help translate currencies between parties in different countries.
Payment Gateways and Security
Payment gateways serve as an additional layer of security for sensitive card data. Just like every other entity that handles card information, payment gateways also have to abide by the regulations and standards that are maintained by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council, or PCI SSC. Payment gateways also use a number of different tools to filter out fraudulent charges, including AVS check, address verification, geolocation, and tax amount calculation.
How Nodus Can Help
Nodus can provide merchants with every aspect of the electronic payment process, including the payment gateway. For a list of payment gateways that we support, click here. If you are interested in setting up a payment gateway through Nodus, please contact us.
