osCommerce, Checkout, PayPal and WorldPay
accepting payment via credit card

To achieve the maximum number of sales you need to accept payments online via credit and debit card, in addition to cheque and bank transfer.  If you do not offer this ability/ease with which to pay, your potential customers may never become your real customers.  The majority of your visitors will want to pay via this current simplest method available - DEBIT or CREDIT CARD.

Accepting online payments via credit card must be done securely.  It is not adequate to take credit card details via SSL then to email the results to yourself or the administrator.  There are at least three issues with this method:

1. Sending sensitive details via email is not secure (unless you intend to use some sort of sophisticated encryption prior to sending the email).
2. Storage of credit card details must be kept secure else you could be breaking the law.  If credit card data is not protected in a manner in accordance with the PCI DSS then you could receive heavy fines.
3. Detection of fraud - how do you check if the credit card details are stolen?  This is very important and is highlighted in our Accepting online payments article.
4. By taking payments via the Internet you maybe contravening your terms of use of your current merchant account.

It is far better to use a credit card processing company that specialises in Internet payments, then the transactions are carried out securely and monitored for fraud.  

When comparing the prices remember that you do not require an Internet Merchant account if you are using Checkout, PayPal or WorldPay.  Using an alternative online payment processing company you will need an Internet Merchant account and your bank will charge you anything from 2 to 5% per transaction depending on your business in addition to the costs charged by the online payment processing company.

Checkout, PayPal and WorldPay

Checkout, PayPal and WorldPay are proven leaders online and we recommend and support them within all our ecommerce hosting accounts. WorldPay can provide PRE-AUTHorisation accounts (which many others do not offer).  This allows you to confirm the order and customer are real before logging in to WorldPay to complete the transaction; until this is carried out by the seller NO funds are transferred.  PayPal have a similar safe-guard in that they do not charge if you refund a payment.  If there has been a fraudulent payment just refund it within 60 days and there should be no charges. Checkout, PayPal and WorldPay are setup and ready to use on all our ecommerce hosting.

  Checkout the newest contender offering great savings:  

Checkout now offers you a safe and secure method for you to process online payments. There is a prerequisite to using this over other payment options offered, such as PayPal or WorldPay, which is the requirement of SSL (https - secure server). POA.

The great bonus for using Checkout is there are zero charges until the end of the year (2007) and then the charges will be free dependant upon your Adwords spend, and there is no cost to setup the Checkout account. For most traders the additional premium for SSL will be recovered within a short period of time due to Checkout Free transactions and the future free processing as per your Adwords spend. More details on Checkout Free transaction processing, and future Checkout offers.

  WorldPay WorldDirect:   

The type of WorldPay account you need to operate in conjunction with osCommerce is a "WorldPay WorldDirect" account - product type: Select Junior (at the time of our last update - June 2007 - the price was £200 setup fee, then £30 per month with 4.5% per credit card transaction charge and £0.50 for debit cards).

If you require a PRE-AUTHorisation account then you MUST state so when ordering.

  PayPal are now a VERY viable option for business use as:  

• PayPal now accept most of the main stream credit cards and debit cards
• PayPal now have a HUGE user-base due its successful owner ebay
• PayPal do not charge if you refund a payment.  If there has been a fraudulent payment just refund it within 60 days and there will be no charges (correct as of June 2007).
• PayPal do not charge if you refund a payment.  If there has been a fraudulent payment just refund it within 60 days and there will be no charges (correct as of June 2007).
• Now there is no need for your customers to have an account with PayPal.  To make a payment to you all a customer now needs to do is enter their credit card details.
  To ensure your PayPal account can accept payments from non members:
  • Login to your PayPal account.
  • When logged into your PayPal account click here to set your website payment preferences
    Scroll to the end of page and set the
    PayPal Account Optional: to On
    and click the Save button

  If you decide to open a PayPal then to reap the best benefits from it ensure the account type you open is a Business Account.

Is it worth it?

1. Yes, you can expect to sell several times more by accepting payment by credit/debit card than by cheque, or bank transfer. 
2. "THE increasing maturity of UK Internet users will lead to an ecommerce boom in the next few years." (source: Computing 14th Aug 2003).  This is continuing to be correct (June 2007).

One of our featured web sites, The Singles Agency, has increased revenue by 1000%, when they started to accept payments via credit card in March 2003 and they are continuing to reap the rewards:

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