Ben Sgro (ProjectSkyLine) wrote on Monday, September 24, 2007 12:20 AM: > Hello Keith, > > Good points. From the authorize.net online info, my understanding is > that: > http://www.authorize.net/support/csfaqs/#142133 > > #9 The Credit Card Interchange System passes the appropriate funds > for the transaction to the Acquiring Bank. > > I guess I'm not clear on who that is, and how to set that up. I know > my client has a merchant > account with Soveirgn Bank. My client is a 35 year old business, so > I'm sure they have > good rates. > > So we want Authorize.net to transfer the funds to Soveirgn when the CC > charge is completed.
This is always a brilliantly confusing topic, but as I understand it... -- you have a business checking account (let's say with Soveirgn) -- you get a merchant account (with your bank like Soveirgn, or somewhere else) -- your merchant account generally picks the gateway (like authorize.net) to use There might be some more options, but typically the gateway (authorize.net) doesn't do much with the money. They just authorize the card and do the capture. If things are kosher, then they tell your merchant account to initiate the transfer from the user's card to your merchant account. Once things settle at the end of the day, it gets transferred to your business checking account. Generally the best bet that I've seen is to talk to your bank (the one where you can write checks from). They typically will provide merchant services, and generally have the better rates. Going through third-parties and smaller middleman can be troublesome. I just had a meeting the other night with a couple guys who wrote their own gateway (like authorize.net). The number of middle-men was astonishing. Someone like Authorize.net doesn't actually talk to the credit card companies... they need to talk to another layer of networks. It's not until another apparent two to three layers of network, that finally the credit card companies themselves get hit. Mix in the different types of credit cards, international banks, and the required support of course for standard POS terminals, it's amazing it works quite frankly. H _______________________________________________ New York PHP Community Talk Mailing List http://lists.nyphp.org/mailman/listinfo/talk NYPHPCon 2006 Presentations Online http://www.nyphpcon.com Show Your Participation in New York PHP http://www.nyphp.org/show_participation.php
