Payment Gateways: Introduction

Have you ever wondered how merchant services industry works? Have you ever wondered how credit card payments are processed? Do you know how many players are involved in the credit card transaction processing and what criteria need to be considered by a business while selecting the right payment processor or gateway?

Mini-Series

“Payment Gateways” mini-series covers the most important features to be considered during payment gateway selection.

It is critical for modern-time merchants to make proper choices when it comes to merchant accounts, merchant services and merchant relationships. Some merchants erroneously think that the only factor to be considered during decision-making in merchant services industry is transaction pricing. True, transaction pricing is a crucial factor but there are many other factors to be kept in mind.

“Payment Gateways” is a mini-series of posts designed to assist businesses in selecting payment processors and payment gateway providers. The mini-series familiarizes the main actors of merchant services industry with different sides of credit card processing. Every article in the mini-series describes a certain aspect to be taken into account by a business when it chooses a credit card processor or a payment gateway to partner with.

“Payment Gateways” mini-series is targeted at the two categories of players, referred to as merchants and resellers.

In the context of the mini-series a merchant is defined as business which processes transactions for itself.

Resellers (as defined in the mini-series) represent an emerging group of people and organizations, providing the link, which connects merchants and payment processors. Resellers assist merchants in getting their merchant accounts, and, sometimes, participate in transaction processing in other ways.

The material in the articles is arranged in a manner which makes merchant’s and reseller’s perspectives clearly visible and understandable for readers. To make the series more illustrative, examples are provided in every installment.