How it Works
At its simplest level, a payment page from a payment services provider such as PayPoint.net works using HTML forms submitted over SSL. A secure server at your end is not necessary but can be used if you wish. The life cycle of a typical transaction processed through our payment page consists of six or seven steps:
- Customer visits your site and clicks on a ’Buy Now’ button or otherwise selects items to purchase.
- The selection is added to their shopping cart if you have one, or is included in a transaction summary ready to pass to the payment gateway.
- The customer’s personal and financial details are recorded via a secure form. This form may be on your site, or we could host it for you.
- Details submitted on the form are transmitted to the payment gateway service. The gateway service securely routes the information through the relevant financial networks to gain authorisation acquiring and issuing banking partners.
- Fraud prevention checking and rule based transaction filtering are applied.
- PayPoint.net provide notification of transaction status (authorised, declined or blocked by anti-fraud measures) and then process the transaction through the banking systems.
- If the transaction is successful, the customer’s credit card account is debited and your merchant account is credited.
- All transactions received to your account are detailed in the transaction manager within SECnet, where there are a range of reporting options.
SECnet also includes a full Virtual Terminal facility. - Once all funds have cleared, the money will be transferred to your chosen ordinary business bank account.
- PayPoint.net collects the charges for the transaction and monthly service charges via Direct Debit.
Authorisation
Merchants must obtain authorisation in order to charge the credit or debit card for the goods ordered. In most cases, authorisation is obtained by your acquiring bank (provider of your internet merchant account) asking the customers card issuing bank if they are prepared to accept the transaction. If the card has been reported stolen or there are insufficient funds available, authorisation will be declined. This negotiation is done seamlessly within the transaction handling done by PayPoint.net.
*It is worth highlighting that Authorisation and processing is performed by the acquiring bank and is not a guarantee of payment.
Capture
Once authorisation has been achieved, the credit or debit card can be debited. This tends to happen automatically at the same time as authorisation, providing that the merchant guarantees that the order will be delivered within an agreed time period. If this is not the case, authorisation can be taken on a ’deferred’ basis, whereby capture does not take place until the transaction is ’released’. This technique of deferring transactions can also be used to allow time for merchants to verify customer’s identity in the case of suspected fraud.
Fraud Prevention
PayPoint.net Gateway offers an optional fraud solution that enables you to make informed choices on which transactions to accept automatically, those which to reject automatically and those that you wish to manually assess before either rejecting or accepting. This multiple level of Fraud management systems puts some of the most sophisticated anti-fraud systems and information in the hands of PayPoint.net merchants, through an intuitive and easy to use interface.
Virtual Terminal
In order to process mail order or telephone orders, all you need is a PC connected to the internet with a web browser, and you will be able to use the PayPoint.net Virtual Terminal which provides all the processing functions of a physical POS terminal, but with added convenience. Partial and full refunds can be made using this facility, as well as creating new sales and releasing deferred transactions. Please note that your acquiring bank (the supplier of your internet merchant account number) may prefer that you have a second merchant number for MOTO (mail order telephone order) transactions.
