Merchant FAQs

Below is a list of the most commonly asked questions asked by merchants of Authorize.Net

• What is Authorize.Net?
• What is a payment gateway?
• What does Authorize.Net do?
• What services and products does Authorize.Net provide?
• What type of merchants use Authorize.Net?
• Where does Authorize.Net fit in the credit card payments process?
• What credit cards does Authorize.Net support?
• What is a Reseller?
• How secure is submitting transactions over the Internet?
• Does Authorize.Net store customer payment information?
• How secure is Authorize.Net?
• What is Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)?
• What does Internet Protocol (IP) mean?
• What does Authorize.Net do to protect merchants from fraud?
• How do I connect my Web site to Authorize.Net?
• I want to accept payments at my Web site—how do I get started?
• Can Authorize.Net process my point-of-sale (POS) transactions?
• I want to process transactions via IP from my retail store, how do I get started?
• I already have an Authorize.Net Payment Gateway account for processing transactions online—do I need another one to be able to process retail transactions using Authorize.Net?
• What is a merchant bank account?
• What does an Authorize.Net Payment Gateway account include?
• What is the Merchant Interface?
• What is the Virtual Terminal?
• What is Batch Upload?
• What is eCheck.Net®? How do I sign up for it?
• What is Automated Recurring Billing™ (ARB)?
• What is Fraud Detection Suite™ (FDS)?
• I’m a reseller and want to resell Authorize.Net, how do I get started?
• What is the Reseller Interface?
• What processors does Authorize.Net support?
• How do I contact Authorize.Net?

Authorize.Net is the preferred payment gateway among resellers and merchants for managing payment transactions using the power and speed of the Internet. Authorize.Net also provides other business enhancing products that help merchants manage their transactions. For more information about Authorize.Net, see the About Us page.

A payment gateway is a complex system of computer technologies and processes that allow merchants to electronically submit payment transactions to the payment processing networks (i.e., the Credit Card Interchange and the Automated Clearing House Network) via the Internet. More specifically, payment gateways provide the necessary Internet infrastructure that enables merchants to accept credit card and electronic check payments from Web sites.

Authorize.Net facilitates the submission and routing of credit card and eCheck.Net® payment transactions on behalf of its client merchants to the processing networks in real-time—24 hours a day, seven days a week. The Authorize.Net Payment Gateway supports all types of merchant business models, including: from Web sites, at retail (physical locations where payment is presented directly to the merchant by the customer at the time of purchase), mail order/telephone order (MOTO) call and fulfillment centers, and from wireless devices.

Authorize.Net also provides merchants with business and transaction enhancing products, such as eCheck.Net®, Automated Recurring Billing™, and Fraud Detection Suite™.

Primarily, Authorize.Net provides payment gateway or IP payment processing services to Web sites, retail (physical location where payment is presented directly to the merchant by the customer at the time of purchase), MOTO, and mobile merchants.

Authorize.Net also provides other value adding payment processing products that help merchants enhance transaction processing, streamline their business, and save time and money. Some of Authorize.Net’s value-products are: Automated Recurring Billing™ (ARB), Fraud Detection Suite™, and support for Verified by Visa and MasterCard® SecureCode™. In addition, Authorize.Net offers an exclusive electronic check payment option, eCheck.Net®.

The Authorize.Net Payment Gateway supports all types of merchant business models, including: from Web sites, at retail (physical locations where payment is presented directly to the merchant by the customer at the time of purchase), mail order/telephone order (MOTO) call and fulfillment centers, and from wireless devices for mobile merchants. For more information about what Authorize.Net can do for you, see our Merchant Solutions page.

In the credit card payments process, Authorize.Net sits between the merchant and the payment processing entity (e.g., FDMS, TSYS Acquiring Solutions ^(SM), Global) that does business with the merchant’s bank. Authorize.Net also has a relationship with the payment processing entity, which allows Authorize.Net to pass transaction information on behalf of the merchant via the Internet (over a proprietary and secure connection).

A typical Authorize.Net credit card transaction flows in the following way:

1. A credit card transaction is submitted to the Authorize.Net Payment Gateway either from a merchant Web site or directly from a merchant.
2. Authorize.Net automatically passes the transaction to the Acquiring Bank’s Processor (the payment processor that does business with the merchant’s bank).
3. The Acquiring Bank’s Processor passes the transaction to the Credit Card Interchange System (an entity that routes payment information to the parties involved in settling a credit card transaction).
4. The Credit Card Interchange System routes the transaction to the appropriate Credit Card Issuer (the bank or organization that issued the customer their credit card).
5. The Credit Card Issuer approves or declines the transaction and passes both the transaction results and the appropriate funds back through the Credit Card Interchange System.
6. The Credit Card Interchange System relays the transaction results to the Acquiring Bank’s Processor.
7. The Acquiring Bank’s Processor relays the transaction results to Authorize.Net.
8. Authorize.Net stores the transaction results and sends it back to the merchant and customer.
9. The Credit Card Interchange System also passes the appropriate funds for the transaction to the Acquiring Bank (the merchant’s bank).
10. The Acquiring Bank passes remaining funds to the merchant’s bank account.

On average, steps 1-8 take only 3 to 4 seconds!

Authorize.Net supports all major credit cards: Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express, Japan Credit Bureau (JCB), Diner’s Club. Authorize.Net also has an exclusive electronic check solution, eCheck.Net®. For more information about how you can expand your payment options and increase revenue, see our eCheck.Net page.

A reseller is a company or organization that distributes a service or product on behalf of a separate corporation or manufacturer. Many large companies benefit from developing a reseller community through which they are able to sell their services and products. In the payments industry, resellers are most often Independent Sales Organizations (ISOs), Merchant Services Providers (MSPs), and Value-Add Resellers (VARs). These type of organizations will typically provide merchants with a wide range of business enhancing services and products.

Submitting transactions over the Internet can be as secure as providing credit card or check payments in person. All parties involved with processing any payment transaction—including customers, merchants, merchant service providers or businesses that handle customer payment information, and payment gateways—should be vigilant about protecting customer payment information.

For merchants and merchant service providers that may handle customer payment information, there are many payments industry security initiatives and programs in place that are designed to safeguard customer payment and other sensitive information—programs with which in many cases they are required to prove compliance. As you seek merchant service providers to work with, be sure to find out about their efforts to meet industry standard security requirements and practices. A professional organization will do everything in their capacity to meet and maintain the highest levels of Internet security—which is why Authorize.Net is compliant with maintaining the highest industry security standards.

For the purpose of risk management and to be able to process certain types of subsequent transactions (e.g., recurring billing, refunds), yes, Authorize.Net will store customer payment information in a highly secured database for a limited period of time. However, all sensitive or personally identifying customer information that is stored by Authorize.Net is masked in the Merchant Interface and in merchant reporting. In addition, in order to maintain compliance with several card association regulated security compliance programs, internal access to customer information is highly restricted.

Once customer payment information has been stored for 120 days (from the date it was originally received), the Authorize.Net purges the full information and stores only masked information.

Authorize.Net is uncompromising when it comes to providing merchants with secure, trustworthy payment processing services. For receiving and transmitting customer payment information Authorize.Net implements the most advanced Internet security protocols including 128-bit Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). On top of that, Authorize.Net consistently employs an extensive number of strong practices, procedures and industry leading technologies to maintain tight security for the entire payment gateway platform. We also maintain compliance with high quality security programs developed by the card associations, such as Visa Cardholder Information Security Program (CISP) and MasterCard Site Data Protection (SDP); and are continually investing time and money to maximize the security surrounding the payment gateway.

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) is an Internet protocol that safeguards electronic communications between two or more computers. For a communication or transaction that is transmitted over an “end to end” SSL connection, the computer initiating the transmission will open an SSL connection. This means that when Computer A sends a request to Computer B to transmit information, Computer A will include a digital certificate—a complex authentication tool that is basically a third-party issued certification that Computer A is a trustworthy source. Computer B then accepts the transmission and, in the event that Computer B has information to return to computer A, the SSL connection may remain open until the transaction between the two computers is complete.

Server-side SSL can also be used in the event that Computer A doesn’t have the necessary digital certificate or the ability to open an SSL connection to submit a communication to Computer B. However, Computer B may have some other means of authenticating the trustworthiness of Computer A or other computers that are submitting communication requests. Any transmissions sent to other computers by computer B will be transmitted via an SSL connection to those computers. In this case, the SSL connection is terminated once Computer B has completed its transmission.

When transmissions are sent over an SSL connection, they cannot be intercepted, viewed or modified by other parties on the Internet. As such, customer payment information is transmitted securely.

Internet Protocol (IP) is the method of transmitting information and communications between computer systems and networks via the Internet. For the payments industry, the ability to use IP to transmit customer payment information directly to the processing network has revolutionized the way merchants run business—opening doors to a wide range of new payments acceptance opportunities, including from Web sites and wireless devices, to helping store-front merchants cut costs and speed up checkout lines.

Authorize.Net recognizes that fraud may well be the biggest challenge facing our merchants—which is why helping merchants protect themselves from fraud is one of our highest priorities. There are several ways Authorize.Net protects merchants from fraud:

• Unlike other payment gateways, Address Verification Service (AVS) and Card Code Verification (CCV) tools come with our standard payment gateway accounts—helping merchants build their fraud protection program from the ground up.
• Authorize.Net has an established and dedicated Fraud Management Department, dedicated to the daily monitoring of merchant accounts and development of merchant protection practices and program.
• Based on extensive research and criteria developed by our dedicated Fraud Management Department, the Authorize.Net Fraud Detection Suite (FDS) provides an unrivaled set of transaction filters and tools that empower merchants to identify, prevent and manage potentially fraudulent transactions. For more information, see our FDS page.

Authorize.Net is continually investing money and resources into providing merchants with the tools and information they need to protect themselves from fraud.

Connecting your Web site to the Authorize.Net Payment Gateway requires some additional code and development for your Web site. To do this, you will need to make arrangements with your company’s Web developer or a contracted Web developer. See our Connection Methods page for more information about our secure connection methods. Your Web developer may be able to help you choose the connection method that is right for your business.

To accept payment from a Web site, you will first need an Authorize.Net Payment Gateway account and a merchant bank account (a type of bank account that allows you to collect proceeds from online transactions). To obtain these services, you can choose one of many Authorize.Net resellers. See our Reseller Directory.

You will also need to make arrangements with your company’s Web developer or a contracted Web developer to assist you with technical integration. See our Connection Methods page for more information about our secure connection methods. Your Web developer may be able to help you choose the connection method that is right for your business.

For more information, see our Getting Started page.

Yes! Retail merchants can harness the power and speed of the Internet to submit payment transactions, cutting costs and speeding up checkout lines. Authorize.Net offers a variety of POS solutions for all types of retail merchants through our partner POS solutions providers. In fact, many of our partner POS solutions providers offer POS hardware and software that is already integrated to the Authorize.Net Payment Gateway. Check out our directory of POS solutions providers.

To process your retail transactions via the Authorize.Net Payment Gateway, you will need an Authorize.Net Card Present Payment Gateway account, and a Card Present merchant bank account (a type of bank account that allows you to collect proceeds from retail transactions). To obtain these services, you can choose one of many of our partner point of sale (POS) solutions providers.

Many of our partner POS solutions providers offer POS hardware and software that is already integrated to the Authorize.Net Payment Gateway. If you would like more information about what is necessary to integrate directly to the Authorize.Net Payment Gateway yourself, please see our Card Present Implementation Guide.

For more information, see our Getting Started page.

Yes, you will need a separate Authorize.Net Card Present payment gateway account. Contact your reseller today for more information about signing up for a Card Present account.

For more information, see our Retail Merchant Solutions page.

A merchant bank account is a type of financial institution or bank account that allows merchants to collect proceeds from consumer bank account or credit card payment transactions. A Card Present (CP) merchant account is used by merchants that process IP transactions received at a physical location, where payment is physically presented to the merchant by the customer at the time of the transaction. A Card Not Present (CNP) merchant account is used by merchants that receive payments electronically or in situations where payment is not physically presented to the merchant by the consumer at the time of the transaction.

A standard Authorize.Net Payment Gateway account includes the following:

• Connection Methods – Several options including AIM, SIM and Card Present.
• Merchant Interface – A password-protected Web site that allows merchants to manage transactions, change security and account settings, and generate reports.
• Virtual Terminal – Included in the Merchant Interface, the Virtual Terminal allows merchants to manually key in and submit transactions easily and quickly.
• Batch Upload – Included in the Merchant Interface, the Batch Upload feature allows merchants to upload multiple transaction at once and facilitates uploads from a spreadsheet or proprietary business application.
• Address Verification Service (AVS) – A fraud prevention tool that allows merchants to filter transactions that are submitted with billing addresses that do not match the cardholder’s billing address on file at the card issuing bank.
• Card Code Verification (CCV) – A fraud prevention tool that allows merchants to filter transactions that are submitted with a card code that does not match the cardholder’s card code on file at the issuing bank.
• Free Customer Support – Authorize.Net provides live technical and account support seven days a week, as well as access to online documentation and user guides.

The Merchant Interface is a password-protected Authorize.Net Web site that allows merchants to manage transactions, change security and account settings, generate reports, and sign up for value-adding products.

The Virtual Terminal is a feature of the Merchant Interface that allows merchants to manually key in and submit transactions easily and quickly.

Batch Upload is a feature of the Merchant Interface that allows merchants to upload multiple transactions at a time from a spreadsheet or proprietary business application.

Authorize.Net’s exclusive electronic check payment solution. eCheck.Net® allows merchants to post charge and refund transactions directly to a customer’s bank account from their Web site. For merchants already processing credit card transactions using Authorize.Net, using eCheck.Net is easy. Authorize.Net provides combined transaction management, reporting and customer support. For more information about signing up, see our eCheck.Net page.

ARB is an Authorize.Net value-add product that allows Web and MOTO merchants to create a recurring billing schedule or “subscription” for the purchase of goods or services. Merchants enter transactions and customer billing information, specify a billing amount and billing interval and ARB does the rest—automatically generating subsequent transactions for the duration of the subscription. For information about how to sign up, see our ARB page.

FDS is a powerful, rules-based set of transaction filters and Internet Protocol (IP) address tools designed specifically to help Web merchants identify, manage and prevent costly fraudulent transactions. For information about how to sign up, see our FDS page.

To become an Authorize.Net reseller, contact our Reseller Channel Team by submitting our Reseller Inquiry form or call toll-free today at 866-437-0491. They will help you get the ball rolling.

The Reseller Interface is a password protected Authorize.Net Web site that allows resellers access to merchant provisioning tools, reports, and Authorize.Net account information.

Authorize.Net has a relationship with CardSystems Solutions, Concord EFSnet, First Data Merchant Services (Omaha and Nashville processing platforms), Global Payments, RBS Lynk, Nova Information Systems, Paymentech (Tampa processing platform), and TSYS Acquiring Solutions ^(SM).

There are several ways to contact Authorize.Net. To find the exact contact information you need, see our Contact Us page.