For an online business to be successful a merchant must be able to accommodate its customers and process their payments. Through the XYZ Referral Partner and Total Merchant Services packages, merchants will be able to accept all major credit cards, government purchasing cards and checks. These packages provide automated payment acceptance and also allow merchants the ability to manually transact phone, mail and fax orders. However there are specific requirements to begin accepting card and check payments from your website and certain bank and software costs apply.

Every merchant that wants to accept and process payments on the Internet is required to have the following:

• An Internet merchant account
• A Virtual Terminal
• An Internet Payment Gateway certified with their credit card processor.

What is an Internet merchant account?

An Internet merchant account is a merchant account specifically approved for processing "card not present" sales [i.e. "MO/TO" (mail order, phone order) / Internet-Based transactions].

Visa and MasterCard have different criteria for evaluating the potential risk involved in credit card transactions where the card is not physically presented to the merchant. This type of business is typically referred to as "card not present" or "MO/TO" (mail order/telephone order) merchant. For this reason, a separate merchant account is required.

What is a Virtual Terminal?

A Virtual Terminal performs all the functions of a physical credit card/check processing box, conveniently accessed over the Internet through a secure web page interface.

What is an Internet Payment Gateway?

An Internet Payment Gateway is a feature of a virtual terminal. It takes the credit card information from the Virtual Terminal to the credit card processor, and returns the approval information back to the Virtual Terminal.

The Internet Payment Gateway does this in a "real-time" manner, over the Internet, in a totally secure environment.

Why do Internet Payment Gateway Providers exist?

They exist because credit card processors will not allow individual merchants to access their systems through the Internet. They do not permit this because of security issues.

Credit card processors only permit companies that have "certified" their software to access their systems. In this way, credit card processors are able to make sure only a few certified [and therefore trusted] companies have access to their systems via the Internet.

What can you do with a Virtual Terminal / Payment Gateway?

First, you can use the Virtual Terminal to perform all the same functions of a physical credit card terminal, conveniently accessed over the Internet through a secure web-page interface. You will be able to manually process credit card transactions, issue credits, void transactions, view your online log file… really manage your Internet-Based business… from any computer in the world.

With each Total Merchant Services/XYZ Referral Partner package, merchants receive set-up of a [virtual terminal] account. [virtual terminal] - an internet-based transaction processing system that enables businesses to authorize, process, and manage credit card and electronic check transactions in a real-time, online environment from any computer with an Internet connection and a Web browser.

Get your E-business started the right way; through the Total Merchant Services' online application link below you can begin to accept payments immediately.

To speak with a representative regarding your options, simply fill out our Please Call Me Request Form below.