Choosing your payment gateway for the first time can be a daunting task, the information in this article is aimed to help you with making the decision and process easier! It contains some information about what payment gateways are, and compare a few of the common payment gateways in Australia.

What is a payment gateway?

A payment gateway is the service/gateway between you, your customers, and your bank/merchant account. Without a payment gateway you can’t process credit card transactions, and depending on requirements some payment gateway providers may more suitable than others.

What is the difference between a payment gateway and a merchant account?

A merchant account differs from a payment gateway in the fact that it allows the actual collection of funds from credit cards, while the gateway is only an in between service which uses the merchant account to actually collect the funds. Merchant accounts usually have a % transaction fee associated with them, while payment gateways have a per transaction fee (not based on %) associated with them.

What should I look for in a payment gateway?

• Age/Trust/PCI Compliance: you want to make sure the payment gateway has a good reputation, and has been around for a little while.  Having PCI compliance on the gateway is also a must (it’s now a requirement in most cases). 
• Fraud Prevention: This is especially important if you are doing online transactions.  There is a huge amount of fraud going around online now, and if you don’t have the protection in space you could have to front up the costs of a lot of fraudulent transactions.
• Integration with Existing Software: If you are using existing software that is not built in house, chances are there may already be a module created for that software to interface with a payment gateway.  Check if the payment gateway supports your software out of the box because it could save you a lot of time.
• Banks/Merchant Accounts Supported: While most payment gateways support a decent number of banks, double check the bank you plan on using is supported by the payment gateway.
• Reporting: Having extensive reporting available can be a huge help when you want to check the history of your processing. It may not seem important at first, but they definitely become useful down the track.
• Token Payments: If you need to do recurring payments, you will either need to get PCI compliance yourself (this can be quite difficult for some businesses) or you can use the payment gateway to handle the credit cards for you through a token payments service.  This means you don’t store the customers credit card details yourself, and have less risk.
• Multi Currency: If you want to process payments in other currencies (such as USD), then this is a must.
• Price: Depending on your volume and payment gateway, this may vary.  Usually per transaction fees drop as you increase your transaction volumes.

Payment gateway comparison: