[thelist] Re: Shopping Sites, Credit Cards

Techwatcher techwatcher at accesswriters.com
Fri Jun 28 08:14:10 CDT 2002


Hi,

> > The client
> wants
> > a One-Click-y kind of thing where we store the credit card with our
> CreditCard
> > Processor. All we store is an encrypted password. After the user's
first
> > transaction with us, the CreditCard Processor has their card number
> related to
> > the password.
> You should also realize that many credit card processing systems
offer this
> feature already, so instead of building your own you could look into
paying
> someone else for processing service.  If you get a good popular
processing
> service, odds are that most of the security holes will have been
caught and
> fixed.

There are other reasons to link to this kind of turnkey service, too.
Example: Paypal.

For one thing, PayPal ensures its security in that customer funds are
guaranteed, as they are in a bank (but NOT as they are for credit card -
- unless buyer used a credit card, obviously). Why take the legal risk
of handling customers' funds at all?

PayPal allows very simple and quick setup, all customer does is click
the link you set up, and they are returned to you (at least, there is a
return link supplied for them!) when they have confirmed the data you
sent Paypal with their link-click. I love PayPal because I refuse to
use any credit card, and they allow weird folks like me to link to a
bank account instead of a credit card.

Further, AFAIK, if you use PayPal the % you have to pay as merchant is
lower than what you'd pay the credit card company if you processed the
transaction through the credit card company yourself. Amazing, eh?

Cheers --
Carol Stein
techwatcher at accesswriters.com



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