Merchant Account Processing and LinkPoint Gateways

Merchant Account Terms

Account Closure Fee: A fee charged upon the termination of the Merchant Agreement, whether the termination occurs during the initial term, as designated in the Initial Term of Merchant Agreement section of your Merchant Application and Agreement, or any time thereafter.

Address Verification Service (AVS): A service provided through which the merchant verifies the Cardholder’s address. Primarily used by mail order/telephone order merchants. Not a guarantee that a transaction is valid.

Association: Any entity formed to administer and promote Cards, including, without limitation, MasterCard International, Inc.; VISA U.S.A., Inc.; and VISA International, Inc.
Association Rules. The rules, regulations, releases, interpretations and other requirements (whether contractual or otherwise) imposed or adopted by any Association.

Authorization: Approval by, or on behalf of, the Card Issuing Bank to validate a transaction for a Merchant or another affiliate bank. An Authorization indicates only the availability of the Cardholder’s credit limit at the time the Authorization is requested.

Authorization Fee (Auth Fee): A merchant is charged an Authorization Fee each time communication is made with the host (other than when a merchant transmits a batch for settlement, for which the merchant is charged a Batch Closure Fee) via the POS terminal, software or gateway.

Bank: Member of MasterCard and Visa that clears transactions for these Associations. For more information, check out Choosing a United States Merchant Account Provider.

Batch Closure Fee: A fee charged when the Merchant transmits a batch to us for settlement. The Batch Closure Fee is separate from and in addition to the Batch Settlement Fee.

Batch Settlement Fee: A fee charged for each batch of transactions settled with the Associations or the debit networks. The Batch Settlement Fee is separate from, and in addition to, the Batch Closure Fee. A Batch Settlement Fee is charged for each batch of transactions settled through the Associations for credit Card and Signature Debit Transactions, and a separate Batch Settlement Fee is charged for each batch of transactions settled through the debit networks for PIN Debit Transactions. For example, if a merchant’s batch includes both (i) credit Card or Signature Debit transactions and (ii) PIN Debit Transactions, the merchant will be charged two batch settlement fees.

Cardholder: The individual whose name is embossed on a Card (or Debit Card, as applicable) and any authorized user of such Card. Chargeback. The procedure by which a Sales Draft or other indicator of a Card transaction (or disputed portion thereof) is returned to Bank or the Issuing Bank, the liability for which is the Merchant’s responsibility.

Chargeback Fee: A fee incurred each time a transaction is charged back to you.

Credit: A refund or price adjustment given for a previous purchase transaction.

Debit Card: A Card used at a Merchant location bearing a MasterCard or Visa logo and/or the marks of ATM networks (such as MAC, NYCE, Star) where the Issuing Bank is not extending credit to the Cardholder, but where the Card is connected to either a deposit account, a prepaid account or a prepaid benefit account.

Discount Rate: An amount charged for processing credit Card transactions or Signature Debit Transactions.

Downgrade Fee: An additional fee applied per settled item for transactions that are charged a mid-qualified or non-qualified rate.

Sales Draft: Evidence of a purchase of goods or services by a Cardholder from Merchant using a Card, regardless of whether the form of such evidence is in paper, electronic or otherwise, all of which must conform to Association Rules.

Signature Debit Transaction: A transaction in which a Debit Card is used at a Merchant location bearing a MasterCard or Visa logo, but where the Cardholder does not enter a PIN.

Merchant Accounts

To accept credit cards, you need a merchant account. There are many companies in the United States to provide a merchant account, one being LoudCommerce. LoudCommerce also offers specials as well, like Mile High Merchant Accounts or a merchant account for Yahoo!®.

Electronic Payment Gateways

On the Internet, you also need an electronic payment gateway to help process the transaction. One example of an electronic payment gateway is LinkPoint Secure Payment Gateway.

LinkPoint Secure Payment Gateway

The LinkPoint Secure Payment Gateway offers you the

LinkPoint Central: A secure portal for merchants to manage everything related to transaction processing, from running secure transactions themselves to setting up their web site to run transactions for them, from preventing fraud to reviewing transaction reports to getting technical support and help.
LinkPoint Connect: The transaction solution that easily commerce enables any Web site. This innovative transaction processing software allows you to process monetary transactions by using a simple Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) form on your Web site. LinkPoint Connect takes care of all the financial processing behind the scenes and deposits money earned from your orders directly into your merchant account.
LinkPoint API (Application Programming Interface): A comprehensive payment processing software for the merchant who requires a more sophisticated payment solution. LinkPoint API gives merchants complete control over how their payments are processed, and allows them to build transaction processing applications that can process payments from a Web site or from multiple Point of Sale terminals. Ideal for either e-commerce or large-scale retail situations, LinkPoint API uses Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) technology to encrypt and pass confidential transaction and order information directly to the LinkPoint Secure Payment Gateway.
Virtual Check: Powered by TeleCheck®, the leader in check transactions, VirtualCheck gives merchants an alternative payment option that works with any LinkPoint Internet solution. With an amazingly straightforward user interface, it's simply the easiest way to accept checks online.

all in one easy manageable account. Usually merchants will choose between the LinkPoint Connect and API. LinkPoint Connect offers you the ability to accept and process credit card transactions securely on LinkPoint's website. LinkPoint API will allow you to accept and process credit card transactions on your secure website. LinkPoint Central is the virtual POS where you can process credit card transactions (for example, if you take an order via the telephone).

LinkPoint usually charges a flat rate per month with no extra charges for transactions, recurring billing, etc.

Payflow Services

Payflow also offers you the the same services as LinkPoint, however you will need to choose between the Payflow Link and Payflow Pro. Payflow Link will allow you to process credit card transactions on their secure website, while Payflow Pro allows you to process transactions on your secure website.

You will need to choose between Payflow Link or Payflow Pro though. Payflow will give you between 500 - 1,000 free transactions per month depending on the plan.

Authorize.net

Authorize.net has the same offers as well, they call theirs SIM (Simple Integration Method) and AIM (Advanced Integration Method). SIM is similar to LinkPoint Connect and Payflow Link - you will direct customer's over to the gateway's secure website to process the credit card transaction.

The AIM is much like the LinkPoint API and Payflow Pro. You integrate the process on your secure website to help maintain consistency throughout the checkout process. You will need an SSL certificate as well.

Yahoo!® Small Business Services

Yahoo!® also provides an electronic payment to process transactions. They use the the Nashville platform of First Data. Any merchant account provider that uses this platform, i.e. LoudCommerce, is compatible. You only need the merchant account, and I would suggest actually this merchant account provider for Yahoo!®. It is ran by LoudCommerce, but they just have a faster way for you to get a merchant account for Yahoo!®.

Other Payment Gateways

There are a few other payment gateways to choose from as well, probably around 100 of them in the United States alone.

Stability is what you want in an electronic payment gateway. You want to make sure that the gateway will be up and running all the time. Things happen from time to time, but if the gateway is down, you cannot process any sales.

Speed is another factor and you will see a lot of gateways boasting they have a very transaction process. Keep in mind that some gateways will calculate this time when it hits their gateway. Some will calculate it when it leaves their gateway. Even though you might want a speedy transaction, stability should be a key factor.

A lot of gateways will have a weekly maintenance period. Usually this will not result in any downtime.

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