SPUG: Re: online cc software or mechanism?

Richard Anderson starfire at zipcon.net
Sat Aug 26 13:09:03 CDT 2000


I spent a long time looking for an online credit card processor that was
low-cost and had a simple interface.  I use Charge Solutions (a subsidiary
of Merchant Online, http://www.chargesolutions.com/).  You can take a look
at the integration between my site and theirs by starting the purchase
sequence at http://www.raycosoft.com/cgi-bin/purchase1.pl   (Don't enter
your credit card info unless you really want to buy!)

Things I like about their system:

Very simple interface between my site and theirs.  I just have the user fill
out a form on my site specifying what they are buying and submit the form to
their secure server with the purchase price and associated information.  The
user enters their credit information on the Charge Solutions secure server
and is returned to my site with an approval or disapproval code.  My CGI
script at the return URL reads the returned parameters and takes appropriate
action.

I can pass some data with the transaction that is preserved and returned to
my receiving CGI script.

I don't need a secure server at my site, since the user enters the credit
card info on Charge Solutions' secure server.

Relatively low transaction fees, although they recently implemented a $25
per month "account fee".  (Mastercard and Visa raised their rates
industry-wide last year and are under investigation by the DOJ.)

They have a sophisticated merchant administration system.  I can get
detailed records on all transactions and fine-tune security parameters (do I
want to accept Discover, do I want to accept transactions where the address
cannot be confirmed, etc.).  I can also void out transactions and process a
credit or debit transaction manually.

They automatically send e-mail confirmation of each transaction to the
merchant and customer.  I also get daily and weekly summary e-mails
detailing all activity.

Customer support is good.  Once a customer had a problem completing a
transaction because of an account configuration blunder on my part and
contacted Charge Solutions instead of me.  The CS rep analyzed the problem
correctly and fixed it immediately, without waiting to contact me.

I have looked at other e-commerce systems and found them to be inferior.

Richard.Anderson at raycosoft.com
www.zipcon.net/~starfire/home (personal)
www.raycosoft.com (corporate)
----- Original Message -----
From: "marlin" <marlingreene at mindspring.com>
To: <spug-list at pm.org>
Sent: Friday, August 25, 2000 6:39 PM
Subject: SPUG: online cc software or mechanism?


> Can anyone suggest software/services for credit card varification that
> will run work smoothly with Perl/Linux?
>
> I have several merchants with website catalogs who already have merchant
> credit card accounts. They would like to speed up the process. Presently
> we ship the web orders to them via email and they call in the credit card
> for approval after the fact.
>
> My take on how it would work is that our order scripts would send the
vital
> information about the card to a service that chases down the cardholder's
> data and returns the results. Does this require software, or can it be
done
> by mail?
>
> Would love to see a presentation at a user-group meeting about setting
> this up.
>
> Marlin
>
> --
> 3 Hats Design
> INTERNET  PRINT  ILLUSTRATION
> 5201 15 Ave NW
> Suite 220
> Seattle, WA 98107
> 206.784.1641 phone
> 206.784.2231 fax
> marlin at 3hats.com
> http://www.3hats.com
>
>  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
>      POST TO: spug-list at pm.org       PROBLEMS: owner-spug-list at pm.org
>       Subscriptions; Email to majordomo at pm.org:  ACTION  LIST  EMAIL
>   Replace ACTION by subscribe or unsubscribe, EMAIL by your Email-address
>  For full traffic, use spug-list for LIST ; otherwise use spug-list-digest
>   Seattle Perl Users Group (SPUG) Home Page: http://www.halcyon.com/spug/
>
>
>


 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
     POST TO: spug-list at pm.org       PROBLEMS: owner-spug-list at pm.org
      Subscriptions; Email to majordomo at pm.org:  ACTION  LIST  EMAIL
  Replace ACTION by subscribe or unsubscribe, EMAIL by your Email-address
 For full traffic, use spug-list for LIST ; otherwise use spug-list-digest
  Seattle Perl Users Group (SPUG) Home Page: http://www.halcyon.com/spug/





More information about the spug-list mailing list