[ic] Payment Gateway/Setup Recommendation Needed.

Ron Phipps interchange-users@interchange.redhat.com
Sun Sep 30 11:50:01 2001


> From: interchange-users-admin@interchange.redhat.com
[mailto:interchange-
> users-admin@interchange.redhat.com] On Behalf Of Peter Yoo
> 
> Hello All,
> 
> I've been ready to launch my site for a while but had some issues with
> BofA(if you have seen my previous mails, you would know) merchant
service
> and VeriSign PayFlow Pro service.
> 
> Now, I'm writing this to get recommendations on what services from
whom
> that I
> need to have a reliabily working payment gateway on IC4.8.2
> 
> At this point, I am willing to open up a new bank account if that's
will
> make my life easier.  Now I belive that VeriSign's PayFlow Pro is
> 'overkill'
> and a bit expensive for my site, but if it's worth to have, then I
will
> go with VeriSign but I really hope someone can tell me what I really
need
> from my bank(BofA) to enable my VeriSign account.  When I called BofA
to
> get
> my merchant ID, they told me that I have to buy BofA's merchant
service...

The only thing I'm aware that you will need is a "merchant" account.
This is a bank account that can accept credit card transactions.  We did
receive a packet about BofA's different merchant services (they have a
payment gateway like verisign, a ssl hosted shopping area, etc).  We
opted to not take any of these options

> I've already asked before about BofA's Merchant support on IC4.8.2 but
I
> guess
> it's not production-ready yet.  If BofA's Merchant support is
functioning,
> I'm willing to give it a try since it's very reasonablily priced.
Please
> let me know how I can get BofA Merchant support enabled on my IC4.8.2.
> 
> For those who already have payment gateway working on their site, can
you
> tell me what you use?  Which bank?  Which company? and etc.

We currently run two sites.  Both use BofA for the merchant account,
Vital for the processor and Verisign as the payment Gateway.  We are
charged $15.00 a month by BofA to have a business merchant account with
check writing capabilities.  We are also charged $60.00 a month for the
Verisign gateway.  If this is too expensive then you may want to look
into SkipJack or AuthorizeNet, I'm not sure on their pricing structure.

Verisign has been a stable processor for us and the technical support
has been "good".  They are not the quickest to respond by email, but
their phone support has worked well for us.  They went as far as to help
us find $10,000 that was missing in American Express transactions when
it wasn't their problem, but a problem with how Amex setup their options
for our account.  I did not expect them to make the phone calls that
they did to track down who's issue it was when they had already ruled
that the transactions passed through them successfully.

> 
> I'm in California and my BofA branch people might not know what I need
and
> maybe that's why they are trying to sell me their merchant service.
> However,
> since I do not know what I really need, I can't really tell them much.
> VeriSign customer support couldn't help me much other than telling me
that
> I
> need to work with BofA to get 'Vital account #', 'merchant ID' and
etc.

I offered to give you the contact information for our merchant account
in Texas at BofA to see if he could help you out.  Please contact me off
the list for this information: rphipps@reliant-solutions.com .  When we
originally had a client choose BofA they were not on the list of
supported merchant accounts at Verisign, however BofA and Verisign
worked together to establish the relationship.  It may be that your
branch is not aware of what is needed by verisign, so please contact me
if you would like that information.

> I'm confused now and this is affecting my original schedule of my site
> launch.
> 
> I would greatly appreciate if someone can tell me what he/she is using
in
> detail so I can follow.
> 

Launch time can be very frustrating, just ask me about our re-launch 2
weeks ago :)  Keep your head up, you'll get there.

-Ron