Being new to this, I have developed my own custom shopping/ecommerce solution.

what I want to do now is implement the payment system where when the user is presented with the order total, they can continue to pay - from this point, it should direct them to some secure site/merchant or whatever to enter their credit card details, and when authorised, I am able to get that ticket number/authorisation number so I can do whatever with it.

what is this system called? What companies do this payment processing so I can implement it in my system ? how does it work?

thanks!

What you want to sell?
If it is a legal and normal goods, you can use paypal.
the system call merchant account service ,and if you need OScommerce , their call ....cart or something, you can google
OScommerce and check it.
They are all base on PHP.

Kenny

of course its legal. its just an eshop website I have made where people can buy my product to put on their site for them to have an eshop/cart but I want the payment system to be implemented, so credit cards can be accepted - what system exists for taking and processing payments online? (not paypal)

2CO and Plimus. Just check their site once.

Well you need to sign up with any merchant provider. But ask them first what kind of API the provide and is it customizable. Otherwise there are many good e-commerce software applications. Check pinnacle card for example.