Custom Payment Gateway, any ideas?

[AGSmiff]

Good Morning all,

I require a custom payment gateway that will allow me to do the following:

Take someones credit/debit card details and use them to pay an agreed amount to someone else but also deposit a small amount to my account for the service provided. The Small amount will usually be under £1 for the service.

Does anyone have any idea of how best to achieve this and the security implications?
And can anyone develop it? Quotes are welcome ;)

Any help would be greatly appreciated

[dean023]

I use protx for my transactions they are great for small business and may be able to sort out what you need

[KidsBeeHappy]

Good Morning all,

I require a custom payment gateway that will allow me to do the following:

Take someones credit/debit card details and use them to pay an agreed amount to someone else but also deposit a small amount to my account for the service provided. The Small amount will usually be under £1 for the service.

Does anyone have any idea of how best to achieve this and the security implications?
And can anyone develop it? Quotes are welcome ;)

Any help would be greatly appreciated


I don't think anyone will let you do that in one transaction, it contravenes most of the financial services rules. I think it would also put YOU in the place where you would be providing financial services, and therefore you would need licensing and regulating.

Even the merchant accounts themselves pay Gross, and then invoice for fees & charges seperately. I remember barclaycard used to pay net (i.e. gross amount less their processing fees) and it was an absolute nightmare for anyone in an accounting office.

I think you may need a different solution.

[NuBlue]

Good Morning all,

I require a custom payment gateway that will allow me to do the following:

Take someones credit/debit card details and use them to pay an agreed amount to someone else but also deposit a small amount to my account for the service provided. The Small amount will usually be under £1 for the service.

Does anyone have any idea of how best to achieve this and the security implications?
And can anyone develop it? Quotes are welcome ;)

Any help would be greatly appreciated

A cutom gateway is a headache waiting to happen (and probably impossible) as it needs to tie to your bank account and a bank will not let any old jo link into their system. It will cost countless 1000's for anything decent and you will probably be troubleshooting issues with from now until 2060... not to mention having to update it everytime the financial autorities change the goal posts on you.

Use a certified gateway (like Protx) and then at the end of the month etc.. pay what is owed to the relevant people. Will be a LOT easier.

Hope that helps

[AGSmiff]

OK, things are starting to become a bit clearer now. Thanks for the input...

Is it possible to have someone pay with a credit/debit card into someone elses bank account through a sytem similar to this then invoice them for services at the end of the month...a bit like ebay fees?

Would that make things simpler?

[NuBlue]

I would say the simplest way to do what you are describing is to setup 1 account linked to a gateway that takes the payments.

Every payment should come through the same gateway so that it can be accounted for by your bookkeeper and then sort all payments to third parties etc... offline at the end of the month by paying via bacs/cheque etc.

If you split payments at the gateway stage you have 2 accounts to bookkeep for 2 systems to administer, 2 head aches to cure .. :) keep the online stuff as simple as possible is always my advice.

[greenwood-IT]

Hiya,

You didn't mention where the outbound transaction would be going? I assume it's a bank transfer to an account, as you can't transfer from one card to another via any of the merchant services I've ever seen/used.

You could take a payment into your account and then automate a bank transfer to someone else - but you are exposing yourself to some pretty serious fraud. Anyone with a stolen credit card would love you! :mad:

Have a look at how the big boys (like Western Union) handle this. When I worked on transferring money abroad via WU a few years ago, they weren't allowing online transactions but still required manual paperwork submission.

Good luck.

[AGSmiff]

Thanks for all the input, very helpful indeed

As for the fraud aspect... the system I will be implementing is very unique with regards to the way it will be used by the user and this unique selling point will make it almost impossible to use fraudulently.

Greenwood-IT's suggestion of taking the money for the payment into one account then automating the transfer of the amount agreed sounds interesting indeed...

Would the following situation be possible and if so what would would be needed to achieve this?

Situation - Mr X pays Mr Y £25.00 and I get 55p for the transaction taking place.

Process - The money from Mr X (£25.55, the amount to be transferred + the charge for it being transferred) is transferred to my account then the automated bank transfer from my account sends the £25 agreed to Mr Y's bank account and I keep the 55p charge.

[greenwood-IT]

Hiya,

As for the fraud aspect... the system I will be implementing is very unique with regards to the way it will be used by the user and this unique selling point will make it almost impossible to use fraudulently.

Hmm... now that's got me interested, can you give us any clues on this USP? (or in a PM if it's top secret!) :D

Process - The money from Mr X (£25.55, the amount to be transferred + the charge for it being transferred) is transferred to my account then the automated bank transfer from my account sends the £25 agreed to Mr Y's bank account and I keep the 55p charge.

This is basically how Paypal transfer money between individuals (except they transfer the 55p and keep the £25 as commission! :)). Paypal take the transaction value + commission from your card and stick it in their coffers. Then they credit the receivers account, who can then transfer it from Paypal to their personal 'real' bank.

I've no idea which laws or regulations cover this sort of activity, but I'm sure someone up high would be interested in your records. :cool:

Chat soon.

[IridiumCorp]

Situation - Mr X pays Mr Y £25.00 and I get 55p for the transaction taking place.



Mr Y would be considered a Merchant. If you have man Mr Y's which you are collecting card transactions into one account that you own then what you are doing is called "Merchant Account Aggregation" which is 100% not allowed. The simple reason is that Mr Y is not contractually part of the credit chain as per card scheme rules. Each Mr Y would have to have their own merchant account with an acquiring bank. Funds from their consumers would have to be paid direct into their account. You could then invoice for the amount they owe you as a commission.





Process - The money from Mr X (£25.55, the amount to be transferred + the charge for it being transferred) is transferred to my account then the automated bank transfer from my account sends the £25 agreed to Mr Y's bank account and I keep the 55p charge.



This model is basically what an acquiring bank does. A bank that processes card will have an agreement with each card scheme to allow the to process cards for merchants. Their are pretty strict rules on how they can operate.