Re: Credit card numbers on a form

by Thomas James Allen <tjallen(at)pipeline.com>

Date:	Wed, 25 Aug 1999 06:38:07 -0400
To:	"William G. Burgess" <wgb(at)usol.com>
Cc:	hwg-basics(at)hwg.org
	todo: View Thread, Original

At 05:47 AM 8/25/99 -0400, you wrote:
>Hope this isn't too far off topic, but "merchant accounts" are mentioned
>quite frequently.  Could someone please give a quick rundown on  what it is?
>
>Bill
---------------
When you present your credit card for a purchase, either
online or in a store, the merchant who accepts your card
as payment must then process the info through their bank,
to get your money credited to their account, and charged to your card.
This is kept seperate from the store's regular bank account.
This is the merchant account.

Note that the merchant's bank usually requires a second
merchant account for online transactions. Some merchants try to
process online orders through their regular merchant account,
but if the bank finds out, they will usually require a seperate
account for this. Supposedly, according to the bank, such online
transactions are more risky, there are more "chargebacks"
(returned merchandise), more fraud, etc, so of course, the bank
charges more $ for this "online merchant's account."

Hope this helps,
jimmy

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