Credit Card integration with software

[thetodaisies]

Hello,

I am trying to integrate card transaction into my software and am bit confused in where to start. I am using a vb6 application.
my req. is the most common scenario: when the card is swiped in the banks machine next to the computer i want the available details to be accessed into my application.

So does all machines work in the same way? or do i have to implement something for each bank separate?

What are the information we can access when the card swipe is successfull?

Could you point to any sample source code available in .net ? Or any sample manual to use?

Thanks a lot for any help

[Doogle]

I'd start off by talking to a Bank. I suspect there's all sorts of hoops to jump through.

[IanRyder]

Hi,

I'd start off by talking to a Bank. I suspect there's all sorts of hoops to jump through.

If you are developing your software for the UK then I have been in the Plastic Card Payments industry, in the UK, for over 15 years and you have no idea how protective the Card Acquirers will be when it comes to divulging how to interrogate Plastic Card Transactions and passing those transactions to the Card Acquirers for processing, not to mention the fact that MAG Stripe has been replaced by Chip & PIN for the last 10 years now. This is due to Fraud prevention.

Even if you do get this far then your software becomes subject to certification by ALL the Card Acquirers, not just one, which takes an age, so that they can make sure your software conforms to the current Industry Standards enforced by APACS. The bickering that goes on here between the Card Acquirers and the Software Engineers when reviewing results is enough to bang your head against a wall.

Knowing that here are a couple of options for consideration:-

1) Write your software to ONLY push a Transaction Value from your software to a fully certified Chip & PIN Machine available from any Terminal Provider in the UK. In this scenario your software does not become subject to certification itself since it does nothing more than give a Credit Card Terminal a number and the Credit Card Terminal does all the work with the different Card Acquirers when a transaction is taken. This would be subject to the Terminal Provider actually allowing you to do this with an API that they may have developed in house.

2) You could look at trying to integrate an E-Commerce solution over the Internet via a Virtual Terminal which would, in principle, work in the same way as Option 1. If you want to explore that option then you could have a look at my old company here:-

http://www.cardsave.net/

Like I have said, all the above is applicable to the UK but if you are not in the UK then you will have similar considerations in your own country of origin.

The final thing to remember is that there is no simple solution for taking Card Payments since there is a lot to consider when dealing with Plastic Card Transactions.

Hope that helps.

Cheers,

Ian