Real-Time Payments, for the purposes of this guide, are defined as Credit Card purchases made over the Internet. There are several ways of accomplishing this and you must be vigilant when choosing a suitable provider for this kind of service.

A Payment Gateway is a provider of such services. Once again, there are several Payment Gateways, around the world, who offer Real-Time Payment facilities. eWAY is Australia's leading payment gateway.

Once you delve into the realm of Real-Time Payments, you must be aware that security is your greatest concern when passing Credit Card numbers and other sensitive information to your chosen Payment Gateway. This is where Secure Sockets Layer Certificates (SSL) are a necessity.

If you've opted to use a Shopping Cart to sell your products/services online, then you should check what the Third-Party provider can offer you in terms of Real-Time Payments and the security that it demands.

How Do Real-Time Payments Work?

Imagine someone walks into your store (for this example, you own a retail outlet) and wants to purchase one of your products via Credit Card. Once you have recorded the sale in your computer/register, you swipe their credit card in your merchant facility and enter the sale amount. The merchant facility then tells the bank to transfer money from the customer's card into your business account.

Payment Gateways work in a similar fashion, except that they are Internet based and can be completely automated. This means you don't even have to meet the customer to make the transaction. This is generally the most common use for Payment Gateways. There are, of course, other features that come with incorporating a Payment Gateway into your website. Some such features include (but are not limited to):

• Stored Payments (to be processed at a later date, when stock / etc is checked.)
• Bulk processing (For multiple transactions in one batch movement)
• Periodical / Recurring (eg. Monthly renewal fees for your customers)
• Refunds (When you need to reverse a transaction for whatever reason)
• Security benefits that come with using a trustworthy Payment Gateway

See features for more features of eWAY.

Instead of a requiring the physical Credit Card to perform a manual transaction, your website passes a Credit Card number, Expiry Date, CVN (3 or 4 digit verification number), the Cardholder's name, and the amount of the transaction to the chosen Payment Gateway and they look after the rest. Your website is then given a Response Code, which basically tells your system whether or not the transaction was successful.

Specifically, Payment Gateways usually accept transaction information in a format named Extensible Markup Language (XML) or as POST data - both produce a similar result. Different combinations of Shopping Carts and Payment Gateways will depict the actual method that transactions move between websites and Payment Gateways.

Internet Merchant Facility

The only requirement to sign up to eWAY is an Internet Merchant Facility. This is a special facility provided by the banks, in which eWAY deposits the funds from all online transactions. You must have one of these facilities in order to use eWAY.

As this facility is your own, the funds are transferred immediately from your customers credit card, without eWAY ever holding the money. You retain complete control over all your monies.

You will need to have this facility enabled before Joining eWAY. This can be done by contacting your preferred bank (eWAY supports StGeorge, CBA, ANZ, WestPac, NAB, BankWest, and BankSA).