Finance & Loans

Accepting Credit Cards Online – A Shopaholic’s Guide

I’m sure that everyone, at one point in their lifetime, has considered themselves to be a master at online shopping.  You know who you are: if you can surf Amazon and find great deals in less than 5 minutes, I’m talking to you.  If you are the master of auctions on Ebay, I’m talking to you.  Did you know that a lot more goes on behind the scenes of your buying frenzy than you may be aware of?

For instance, what happens when you click that little “Submit” button at the bottom of the page once you have entered in your credit card information?  Well, let me tell you.  Your credit card must go through an acceptance process, that is, the company must decide whether or not to accept credit cards payment.  Accepting credit cards online is a more complicated procedure than most people are aware of – especially those of us who don’t even give our purchases a second thought.

Credit cards must be processed by the website/company that we are purchasing something from, a process that used to take multiple business days, has now been consolidates into a few seconds.  Imagine the type of work that has gone into shortening the process so dramatically.  Process credit cards online on some sites may still take up to two business days, depending on the location of the company, and a number of other factors, including the type of payment processing software they use.