ecommerce question, is it legal to...

willows

Hi

I ahev been having this conversation in the pub over the last few days with fellow webbies.

Is it legal to take credit card numbers off yuor customers online and them process them in a retailer swipe card machine that is used for people presenting credit cards in person the retail out let.

I have heard it's fine, and I have heard from banking people it is not as it is a different risk that is involved.

Does any one knw, if there is a EU rule that this is covered under.

Thanks

Willows

dahamsta

I don't doubt there's rules somewhere, but for the most part the banks make their own rules up as they go along. Try phoning the merchant department with a list of questions and then ringing back five minutes later to see what I mean. One gets you ten the second CS rep gives you completely different answers to the first.

Anyway, when I applied for a merchant account, BOI forced me to get two, one for offline transactions and one for online. It was never made clear to me whether they could be interchanged and since both were cardholder-not-present I'm not entirely sure what the difference was - apart from the rate that is - but that's banks for you.

That was a good while back though, and although the Irish banks haven't embraced technology by any stretch of the imagination, it's all changed again now. I know loads of people who process details collected online in swipe machines by the way. Whether they're breaking the ever-morphing rules or not is another matter entirely.

That was no help at all, was it?

adam

willows

Thats exactly my experience,

altho I guess it would become more clear if you had a dud card and you admitted to the bank that you put it through the swipe card machine from the internet.

there is the issue of holding credit card numbers on ones server for customers if you use the swipe machine, where as if yuo are using world pay the card numebr is never on your systems but only at worldpay.

there has gotta be a definitive line on this somewhere, I canni believe that there is so much online business being do in Ireland and there is no clear guidelines/rules on it.

love to knwo what others experience is.

dahamsta

Best bet is prolly to skip the facilitators and go straight to the source, Visa. Visa most certainly has plenty of rules and guidelines, however I've always found it difficult to tell between them. For example, Visa said several years ago that they were setting new, extremely strict rules on what you could and couldn't do with that data you're talking about. They lashed out a rake of press releases saying "you're gonna need secure networks, secure facilities, etc etc", but I've heard nothing more since.

I say give 'em a call. And if you get a straight answer, let us know?

adam

Fergal C

I spoke to payment processing in AIB about this recently. They said that they would not allow it. From their point of view credit card details, received over the internet could only be processed through an online merchant account.

They also required a year one turnover of either 130 or 180K (can't remember which) before they would give me a merchant account. Out of my league I'm afraid.

BTW I've had a personal ac with them forever, plus they have my mortgage, various insurance packages and my pension business - all without any credit problems ever. But they sill weren't interested in giving me a merchant account.

Fergal

willows

So thats what AIB think or thought at one time ;-)

I do not think world pay have these restrictions and are efficent to deal with.

I know paypal make is extremely easy but the only downside is that you need an offshore account to get the funds back from them.

I am interested to see if there is a EU guidline and or rule on this.