A secure website payment gateway can be more secure for customers than giving out their credit card over the phone, email or writing it down on a paper form.

When a customer gives out their credit card details - how do they know you haven't written it down on a piece of paper for a thief to later find it?

If a thief breaks into the office - will they find your customer's credit card detail in a file, or on your computer?

This FAQ explains what you need as a Merchant to securely process credit card transactions without giving your customers credit details away to crime.

Securing Communications HTTPS

A HTTPS secure site is one with a padlock near the address bar. The padlock tells you that the web page is secured via an SSL certificate. Along with that padlock, your web page should also display a https: in the location bar instead of http. The "s" stands for 'secured'.

What is HTTPS?

HTTPS is the use of Secure Socket Layer (SSL) as a sub-layer under its regular HTTP application layering. It stands for HyperText Transfer Protocol with Secure Sockets Layer.

In a nutshell, the socket encrypts the data between the web browser and the server - so the details can not be harvested by onlookers.

Don't Use Email to Transmit Credit Card Details.

It is unsafe to use a form to email credit card details to your merchant email. 

If not properly written, online forms will send this data through in plain text - which can be easily intercepted.

If your merchant email account gets hacked, criminals may discover the credit card details of your customers.

Some criminals will steal a device connected to the email account (a phone, tablet, laptop) and will then explore your merchant email for credit card details.

How to collect Credit card details Securely as a Merchant...

The best way to collect the details is not to collect the details yourself!

Use a payment gateway (like PayPal) or your online merchant account.

As the merchant - all you see is a notice of the transaction (no credit card details) and your will see the payment on your bank statement.

If you don't know the credit card details, then you are not liable for loosing credit card details.

Paypal is free to have, but they usually charge more in trasnaction fees.

Online Merchant accounts with your own website gateway will incure a merchant bank charge of ~$50/month, plus a gateway cost of ~$50/month. So all up, your are looking at $100/month - but the credit card fees will less. 

If you have an account with OrganicWebs, speak to us about installing a payment gateway. We have written a payment gateway that hooks into most Australian Bank accounts.