online payments

[Kevin Firth]

I have heard that from 1st July Maestro, followed by Mastercard, will not allow their cards to be taken on online shopping sites unless using a payment service provider.

Can anyone shed any light on this as we currently download orders using actinic SSL and then process them through our streamline machine.

This has massive implications to how we run our business so any feedback would be useful

Thanks

Kevin Firth

[leehack]

This is excellent news, I hope they all do it and force the issue.
If you search the forum for 'PCI Compliance', you will find a whole host of threads on the matter. In short your method is no longer any good and shortly you will be forced to change in order to comply.

[Ginnys Attic]

Have a quick look in the Ecommerce Business Issues forum for some topics on PCI Compliance they will help to some degree.

Basically you need to pass PCI Compliance so you can continue to download orders and then process them on your streamline machine. Don't worry in the most part with a decent host you can easily achieve PCI Compliance but you will need your own SSL although again not overly a major worry as they are very cheap these days (under £50.00 per year) so all in all yes there is a process to be followed and some changes needed but nothing that is overly tricky to achieve.

[RuralWeb]

unless using a payment service provider.

This is the important bit as even with ssl cert on your site you will not comply as this is saying you will need to get the likes of HSBC, Protx, PayPal, new actinic payments etc to process your cards. Its been comming for a few years now as lee says.

[leehack]

I thought that even with SSL and PCI compliant hosting, you still would not pass without making quite significant internal changes (most outside of the remit of a normal business) as the actinic software itself cannot pass the test. Am I confused, outdated on the subject or is someone else talking rubbish here?

[Kevin Firth]

It seems from all I have read now that having a PSP is the only way to ensure compliance if using Actinic. This causes me major problems for my business and may take time to impliment. I appreciate that it is all about compliance now but is there the likelihood that it will not be possible to take cards online without a PSP in the near future?

[RuralWeb]

that having a PSP is the only way to ensure compliance if using Actinic

. Correct

is there the likelihood that it will not be possible to take cards online without a PSP in the near future?

It was the case as of 30 April this year in reality. The card companies are now enforcing the situation - you need to get sorted with a psp - paypal is the quickest one to add then take your pick of the rest as they all have associated problems.

[Kevin Firth]

Is the Actinic PSP any good and how long does that take to get up and running? Also as we sell a lot of small items we usually have the odd out of stock on many orders. Can you change the order amount before the PSP takes payment? Also we charge postage at cost and don't know this until we are about to dispatch. We need to charge this after the order is placed sa again we would need to change the order amount before PSP took payment

[leehack]

I think with a big player like Mastercard specifying use of a PSP is mandatory, I expect there is only one way this will go. Although a pain, i'd suggest you get on with it to be honest, forget any ideas of SSL and compliant hosting (no UK shared host is currently compliant), everything I have read has said that is not good enough as the software itself does not comply and cannot be made to without a significant amount of work (ftp and logins the main 2 issues). Even Actinic say this on their own website. As with most issues, always a grey area and always someone throwing some incorrect info into the mix. For the time being I'd take Actinic's word on it, as after all they know the software best. If compliant hosting and SSL was the easy fix, why would they be doing Actinic Payments at all, seems far more work that just improving their shared SSL service.

[leehack]

Is the Actinic PSP any good and how long does that take to get up and running? Also as we sell a lot of small items we usually have the odd out of stock on many orders. Can you change the order amount before the PSP takes payment? Also we charge postage at cost and don't know this until we are about to dispatch. We need to charge this after the order is placed sa again we would need to change the order amount before PSP took payment

Perhaps it is time to also have a look at your methods and see if you can streamline them a little. Actinic can work out your postage costs for you to clear up that area and you have the option of deferred payment I believe, so monies are not taken immediately, if you do not want them to be. I believe in the not too distant future that you will not be able to take monies until you are ready to ship the items, so this should become the norm anyway.

Actinic have details on the their website of it all and a call to sales tomorrow is probably best if you still need any other info after that.

[pinbrook]

Is the Actinic PSP any good and how long does that take to get up and running? Also as we sell a lot of small items we usually have the odd out of stock on many orders. Can you change the order amount before the PSP takes payment? Also we charge postage at cost and don't know this until we are about to dispatch. We need to charge this after the order is placed sa again we would need to change the order amount before PSP took payment

as far as i know actinic payments will allow you to take payment on shipping rather than whe nthe order is placed. I'd phone actinic in the morning and ask them all these qs

[RuralWeb]

Is the Actinic PSP any good

There are several threads on the subject as it was the hot topic in April for obvious reasons. The bottom line is get a psp or forget trading online.

The next step is for no credit card details to be entered into any website page. Shoppers will register thier details with a third party and use that to pay online thus bypassing any need for a credit card

[leehack]

I believe in Japan, that you order a product, the postman delivers it and you pay him as he passes it to you. I just love that idea, it's so cool.

[TraceyHand]

The next step is for no credit card details to be entered into any website page. Shoppers will register thier details with a third party and use that to pay online thus bypassing any need for a credit card

you mean like... *whispers*.. Google Checkout?

*smirks*

tbh, I'm finding customers like GC quite a lot. The single items I have listed with GC 'buy now' options sell well and I'm sure that, if it was integrated (but let's not go there, eh? ) it'd be quite a popular payment option.

My life (or my business) doesn't hinge on it though...but it'd be nice, obviously

[leehack]

LOL Mal, even when you are not saying Google, you are.