Today I rang my merchant banking facility to ask a question and they asked me lots of information. One of the questions was how i receive credit card numbers. I told them off my secure site with offline method.
 
They proceeded to tell me that I was in very real danger of heavy fines if I did not immediately move to a payment gateway. They also threatened to cancel my merchent facility if i did not do this soon. I was shocked as I have always been doing it this way and no-one told me otherwise. The bank I am with is Westpac in Australia and they were very strong in the fact that they did not approve the way I processs payments. They told me to sign up with a trusted gateway like their own payway.com.au or a few others they have approved. It was made very clear to me that I could get in big trouble for doing it the way I have, they told me is was law (but I am not convinced) it is law.
 
So in whatever country you are from, is there any law that says you can not receive credit card transactions through your own website (without going through a gateway)?

Sounds like product cross sell disguised as threats and intimidation. But I could be wrong.

I think you're right, there is a bit of that going on. The problem is that they have every right to remove my merchent facility if I don't comply with their guidelines.

Go to a different bank who is happy with the way you prefer to do business.
 
Alternatively, I am working on an Australian payment system config for ViArt which I am happy to share if I get it working. I use eWay.
 
Although if someone else has already configured eWay I am also happy to hear how you got it working.

Apparently the bank helps out with integration to web shops with payway
 
Changing banks is a huge task when you have setup many direct deposit/credit/mortgage/insurance etc payments, not to mention merchant facility downtime- it just is not worth it.

eWay is one of the banks preferred 3rd party gateways but it is not in Viart or I would consider.

If I can get eWay working I will let you know - that may give you another option if you need it.

Thanks

Have you contacted eWay to see if they will help with Viart install? What country do you work from, is that the problem?

Did you ask the Westpac person what law? Where can you get a copy of this law so you can read it for yourself?
 
Changing banks is not that hard. You could get a merchant facility with any bank and tell them to deposit the money into your Westpac account
 
You might like to investigate that law first before using a payment gateway as payment gateways come with higher costs. If you are doing volume, it is worth it but if you are only small, the costs may be too much.

Maybe their own law?
 
I did find this on their website, it doesn't specifically state a law but does include some info on heavy fines for non compliance and criminal charges.
 
http://www.westpac.com.au/manage/pdf.nsf/33D71923F9B88714CA25729600813FF2/$File/Guide_to_payment_card_industry_data_security_ standards.pdf?OpenElement

Darn this forums lack of edit function :)
 
It doesn't look like you can go direct to the brochure here. Navigate from here maybe http://www.westpac.com.au/internet/publish.nsf/Content/BBCMMS+Fraud+prevention+for+your+business

I'm working from Oz. The problem is not ViArt or eWay at this point, it's me sorting out stuff at my end. I don't expect any problems.

They're afraid of how we store the data. I don't care.. I'm continuing offline processing. It's been my way for years and has worked fine.

Five5
 
I am paying Viart to configure eWay with XML (they dont leave my site)
 
Maybe you would be interested in going halves?
They said it would be around $100 (but i think it might be closer to $200, just a guess, I dont know yet) but I'll let you know if interested.

Dan,
 
That's ok, I was the same, but i have read a lot on this topic in the last 24 hrs. I am happy to do it the right way now and protect myself from anyone stealing numbers from me or my database, apparently even truncated numbers can be used against a database of known algorythyms. I don't want to take the chance- this way I never have to worry about being the reason for hundreds of illegal chargebacks.

I process the cards offline with my accounting system. It processes all transactions for me. The cards #'s are encrypted, so it really shouldn't be a massive deal.

on2dvd,
Is it too late to tell you to check out e-path.com.au
Sorry if I'm late. I only found it by accident the other day

jty, thanks for the suggestion.
I have installed eWay and it works well.