PoS software integration with CC auth centre

cgarvey

Does anyone know what are one's options for integrating a Credit Card authorisation centre into custom-built PoS software, for card-present transactions?

Is as simple (oh how naive of me) as getting an SDK of some form (be it a COM/ActiveX control, or whatever) from some company who charge extortionist prices, or do they only do "deals" with large PoS makers? Or maybe they ask you to interface to their existing terminals via a COM Port?

The CC auth centre is BoI, the software is VB based. The business turnover is a small.

Any help/pointers would be appreciated.

0utshined

That sounds like an interesting project. I'm afraid I don't know the answer to your questions, but these links might be useful :

http://www.ingenico.com/download/download.asp

http://globalplatform.org/specificationview.asp?id=device

http://international.visa.com/fb/downloads/

Best of luck.

cgarvey

Ta 0utshined .. I was hoping not to have to interact with the exisitng terminal, but may have to .. ta for the pointers

ressem

One VB or activex option

http://www.ipworks.com/products/ccdirect/
With a runtime license for each machine you install it on.

"
In order to process transaction with this product you will need a Vital approved merchant account.
"

crashedmind

my understanding is that since the auth centre is BOI then you will need to use a BOI approved solution. BOI will also provide you with a merchant a/c.

This solution could be a h/w solution e.g. POS terminal or some s/w solution e.g. a lib they provide for your app to call.

My guess is that if you are a small player the only solution available to you will be a POS terminal that you talk to via a com port... but that's just a guess.

See http://www.bankofireland.ie/html/gws/business/loans/credit_card_retail_service.html

Let me know how it goes...

clearz

I think a lot of Credit Card authorisation centres use XML which should be easy to implement using most languages.

cgarvey

ressem, clearz .. I need it to be an offline solution, for a few reasons.

• No guarantee of reliable internet connection
• Online clearance would require another party to take their cut (there is already a terminal in place with a BoI merchant account, so that, in theory, should be all that is needed)
• Chip & Pin (and its shift of responsiblity) means online clearance (in its current form) won't process card-present chip&pin transactions (althouh I'm open to correction on that).

crashedmind, this is indeed a small player, but they do already have the terminal in place/use, so if I can do a COM port interaction, then that'd be OK .. but I'd prefer to be able to dial auth centre direct (to make it properly integrated) and do away with the terminal rental. Euroconex haven't returned my few calls on this (no-one knows, but someone will ring you back .. type thing).

Cheers, all, for the info
.cg

ressem

It's meant to be possible. Redhat used to sell ccvs for linux that used dial tones over a phone line to talk MAPP (Mastercard) and Vital (Visa).
Now points to MCVE, http://www.mainstreetsoftworks.com/p/59.html, who do provide a library and windows support.


There's programs like http://www.semaphorecorp.com/ccs/faq.html
and http://www.ronwatters.com/RonSoft2.htm#Works but they don't provide API's

Whether any support chip and pin? not a clue. My limited understanding of these cards would have guessed that authenticating PIN was a function of the swipe reader/terminal communicating with the chip and returning an OK, all done locally.

(btw the ipworks package is meant to connect to your BOI merchant account, provided that they, or the party to which they forward transactions, support Visa's protocol )

cgarvey

Cheers ressem, lots to chew on there .. the IPworks wouldn't work in this case, because of the unavailability to connect to internet (at least reliably).. where as regular dialup (by the terminal) is fine. Having a look at MCVE now, ta.

.cg

crashedmind

cgarvey,

If you need to support Chip&PIN then you need an EMV certified terminal (due to EMV specifications http://www.emvco.org). Basically, only EMV certified solutions are allowed process EMV/Chip&PIN transactions.
This is different from mag card transactions where all you need really is a mag swipe connected to your PC and you can implement the transaction smarts on the PC - but even then some certification may be required depending on the payment scheme used.
So you cannot do away with the terminal rental or roll your own (getting EMV certification for your own implementation is a significant!!! effort and EMV compliant hardware is required anyway).

Note that Chip&PIN cards uses a smartcard rather than a mag swipe so legacy POS terminals will not support Chip&PIN cards.

You really need to talk to BOI then about what level of integration is supported by the POS terminal: you're stuck with the fact that the terminal will do the Chip&PIN transaction but the terminal API may allow you to interrogate it to do your reporting functions or whatever on your PC/host side.

Out of curiousity, what make is the existing POS terminal?

cgarvey

Cheers crashedmind .. I figured the chip & pin stuff wouldn't be as simple as getting a smart card reader alright. I see POS people are bringing out chip&pin terminals for their respective POS, so I'll be taking a look at those .. they must do what I want them to do, it's a question of whether they'll sell them standalone.

Don't know the make of the existing terminal offhand, but it's one supplied by euroconnex.

Ta
.cg

crashedmind

AFAIK, the way it works in Ireland is that the banks supply the POS terminals - not the POS terminal manufacturers - at least that's the way it was a few years ago. This applies equally for the big (Tesco, Lifestyle sports) and small players (B&Bs).

This is because the bank does the authorisation and will only handle transactions from supported merchants.
Basically the bank gives you a POS terminal preloaded with a Merchant ID that uniquely identifies you as a merchant. The banks auth servers are setup to accept that Merchant ID and reject unknown Merchant IDs.
So If by "standalone" you mean that you can buy/rent a terminal and be independent of the bank - AFAIK no can do. It's a bit like buying an iPod - in theory you're tied to itunes.

This is unlike other countries in Europe where there are acquirers that supply POS terminals that are not necessarily banks.

So I think the first people you need to talk to are the banks - see link in my first post for BOI. AIB will also offer similar services.

Note that while Chip&PIN shifts the liability for fraudulent transactions from the bank to the customer the bank still has to auth/process the transaction so there always in the loop.