Hello,

I'm trying to start an online service that will process credit cards online. I'm new with processing credit cards and SSL and all that stuff and am not sure how to go about doing this, but I am a "really" good Perl programmer.

I need to be in full control over what the customer sees and what happens when the credit card information is submitted. Immediate changes to a MySQL database need to take place so that the service can become operational for the customer. I also need the ability to process the same credit card each month.

I know how to do everything except for the SSL and credit card processing stuff. Does anyone know how I could do such a thing or if there is a company that would be PERFECT for helping me with such a task?

Thanks!

That depends on who you have your merchant account with. I would contact them and get some documentation on if they have a gateway(auth.net).

Or are you doing it manually?

I suggest 2checkout.com for your needs. They support recurring payment. I've written a comparison between 3 providers. You can read the comparison at http://www.ghazi.net/download/

2checkout.com has passback parameters which you can use after your client pays. These parameters can control actions on mysql database or whatever script you have.

Thanks,

Ahmed

I'd like to find out how to accept credit cards also. I use Paypal now, which charges 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction. I like the service but making customers sign up with Paypal is cumbersome.

multipleimage: Where does one get a merchant account? I believe I had one with Wells Fargo many years ago but it seems as though the credit card processing business has changed dramatically since then. I get spam all the time from places willing to give me a merchant account, but I won't sign up with a spammer. Where do I find legit credit card processors?

nozol: Thanks for your information and review but 2checkout.com seems rather pricey at 5.5% + $0.45 per transaction.

Doug

Well, after posting my first message, I receieved help with processing credit cards.

From the research and help that I got, I figured out that you would need a merchant account with a bank. Then, you go to authorize.net (they were the only ones that I figured out how to do this with) and become part of their program. http://www.authorizenet.com/alliances/3rdparty.php. I learned how to implement some Perl code into my custom scripts that receive information from a form (that I create) and then I am able to do with it what I want...BUT, this code uses the SSLeay "module" to automatically post the information to authorize.net's servers via SSL connection between your server and theirs (authorize.net's). From there, you are sent back a field of coding (its explained in the code snippet) that your script then parses and then you can read the incoming variables from it. Authorize.net has about a 3 page document in their support pages that explains what all the number codes are that their server sends back to yours. From there, you do (and show) the customer whatever you want (probably the status of the transaction).

From reading at authorize.net, I found what they call "ADC Direct Response" that allows their server to send you back those results for your purposes.

Now...please let me re-imphesize...this is the way that I found and there is probably an even easier one out there somewhere. I am still in the process of trying to figure this stuff out, so if I've said something incorrect, PLEASE correct me. I am just posting what I have found and believe to be true.

Thanks.

Troy