im not a webdesigner by any means... this is a volunteer project for a Non-Profit 501(c)(3) organization.

how best to go about setting them up to accept donations via Visa and MasterCard?

6/11/2008 5:05:05 PM

set up a business paypal account. people can pay into a paypal account with the credit card. paypal allows you to design the payment button and then generates the html code that you need to add it to the the web page.

6/11/2008 5:08:44 PM

paypal. you don't want to start messing with anything that requires you or your website to handle any of the CC data

6/11/2008 5:14:12 PM

paypal. you don't want to start messing with anything that requires you or your website to handle any of the CC data

6/11/2008 5:18:30 PM

paypal. you don't want to start messing with anything that requires you or your website to handle any of the CC data

6/11/2008 5:28:31 PM

paypal. you don't want to start messing with anything that requires you or your website to handle any of the CC data

6/11/2008 5:33:30 PM

paypal. you don't want to start messing with anything that requires you or your website to handle any of the CC data

6/11/2008 5:37:21 PM

https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/

6/11/2008 5:43:18 PM

paypal or google checkout is the easiest thing to do. There are a number of online ways to have a secure way of accepting CC directly off your website, but that's usually way overkill for your needs and costs more money to setup.

6/11/2008 7:32:42 PM

Quote :

"you don't want to start messing with anything that requires you or your website to handle any of the CC data"

oh, yeah?

i thought that might be the case... but i see so many 501(c)(3) organizations online that have direct-enter VISA/MC payment arrangements.

why is there such a strenuous reaction against this?

6/11/2008 8:24:35 PM

if you can buffer yourself from other people's cc info, it could help if there is a problem

you know how sue happy people are

6/11/2008 9:16:20 PM

^^ do you really want to go to take on the responsibility of taking people's credit card information, even with the slightest possibility of someone nefarious snooping in on their insecure connection with your website, or hacking into your poorly designed and insecure database? Seriously, you don't want to have the responsibility of holding onto that information and keeping it out of the hands of people who would use it for no good.

not to mention, i think you have to jump through some hoops, or at least go through a good bit of set up, to process CC transactions with a bank anyway

[Edited on June 11, 2008 at 9:51 PM. Reason : .]

6/11/2008 9:47:38 PM

Quote :

"i thought that might be the case... but i see so many 501(c)(3) organizations online that have direct-enter VISA/MC payment arrangements."

You can do this THROUGH paypal. They offer merchant accounts and are very helpful for non-profit organizations.

^you don't have to handle it, and you dont' have to jump through hoops.

[Edited on June 11, 2008 at 9:51 PM. Reason : .]

6/11/2008 9:50:53 PM

^ not through paypal, yeah i know. That's why i suggested paypal.

i meant if you want to take CC #s and deal with a bank directly.

6/11/2008 9:52:21 PM

Um, a paypal merchant account is no different than any other banking merchant account, except with paypal you get more payment gateway options.

There's no more liability, and you don't "take or store" people's CC information in either case. It's all handled by the merchant system, you link into the gateway from your site, and login to the gateway system to monitor and deal with any problems with transactions.

6/11/2008 9:55:30 PM

alright fine, whatever. use Paypal, merchant account, whatever.
my point was, it would be idiotic to try to use some kind of homegrown system where they gathered CC information, then took that information to the bank, instead of using a service or 3rd party system.
jesus, quit trying to turn everything into an argument

6/11/2008 10:16:05 PM

I don't even know what you two are fighting about if you two suggest paypal, but seriously, if you want to accept CC payment from your site and have no prior experience with website development or security, don't play around. Either use a merchant tool with paypal or google checkout OR hire someone who knows how to setup a secure CC gateway on your website.

6/11/2008 11:04:23 PM

noen was picked on alot in high school. arguing fine points in Tech Talk is a cathartic process for him, so we all need to cut him some slack

6/11/2008 11:05:05 PM

Quote :

"OR hire someone who knows how to setup a secure CC gateway on your website."

fuck all that i can roll my own. i knows how to do the google thing.. that's kids play, yo

now... anyone got a tutorial or link or soemthing?




[Edited on June 11, 2008 at 11:08 PM. Reason : ]

6/11/2008 11:06:13 PM

https://www.paypal.com/IntegrationCenter/ic_standard_home.html

6/11/2008 11:10:55 PM

This isn't even an argument because you can't even really do what agentlion is alluding to. Which is my entire point. ANY payment gateway will work fine, paypal is just easier because of their correlary services.

If you want to do straight up CC transactions, either Paypal Merchant + Web Payments Pro (https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_wp-pro-overview-outside), or your merchant of choice + Payflow Pro

https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_wp-pro-integration-outside

Costco also has very very good merchant services just to throw out an alternative.

6/12/2008 12:35:26 AM

damn, noen... do you have to argue with EVERYTHING someone says? calm the fuck down dude.

why would you pay for payflow or website payments pro when you don't have to?

straight paypal = just the fees + discount rate
website payments pro = monthly fee + fees + discount rate

granted, it looks a lot cleaner to the customer if you keep everything on your site... but this is a 501(c)(3) we're talking about here. less overhead = more money.

and yes, you can do with agentilon (sp?) was alluding to - there are a few places left that store credit card info in a db for manual processing (i.e. either calling it into the gateway or entering it on their physical credit card terminal).

6/12/2008 8:51:11 AM