A Merchant account may be a retailer's checking account that permits payments from consumers' credit or debit cards. The payment gateway on the opposite hand isn't a checking account but it only acts as a terminal for verification and authorization of transactions in Credit card processing.
Merchant account and payment gateways free are sometimes conjectured together for the very fact that both deal with financial transactions. But actually, they're both very different from one another though they're partners within the matters of online business and financial transactions.
What a merchant account is
It is a kind of checking account that permits credit or open-end credit payments for goods or any services offered in any business. It practically manages all the financial transactions in your business like payments.
Many chose to possess a merchant account because it's great benefits to both the retailers and therefore the consumers. To the buyers, it saves them time and therefore the problem of paying cash-only payments. They will buy expensive stuff too from stores without fear about bringing large amounts of cash on their wallets.
Getting a merchant account isn't easy and it's not for free of charge, meaning account providers charge fees to each transaction and services made within the merchant account. That’s why there are terms, conditions, and policies that retailers should fully understand and certain factors that retailers should consider before a merchant account might be approved by any account providers. These factors are very crucial too to account providers because these factors will give them the reassurance that your business would be strong enough against economic instabilities or financial crisis because account providers to are affected when that happens.
What a payment gateway is
A payment gateway isn't a banking account but is an authorization and verification agent on behalf of the vendor. It’s the centerline between retailer online store to the financial transactions between the consumer credit /…..and open-end credit to the retail merchant account. It acts as a terminal for credit or open-end credit validation and transaction details encryptions.
Payment gateways are very helpful in online businesses. It’s in online business that a payment gateway is connected with a merchant account.
Here's how a payment gateway works in online sales processing to allow you to understand how it's different from a merchant account:
1. The Buyer visits a business site and selects items that he wants to shop for.
2. The customer then receives receive payment online replica reviewing all of the things he selected and he then clicks on the "buy me" button when he's sure together with his purchases.
3. All items selected will then be put within the electronic handcart meaning that it's being ordered.
4. The consumers are then asked to place some details about their credit or open-end credit accounts before completing the buying process.
5. When confirmed, the location will then pass the transaction details to the payment gateway. The payment gateway will send transaction information to the bank during which the customer's card was issued.
6. The issuing bank will then provide a response to the payment gateway whether it had been approved or not. If approved the buyer's credit card is going to be debited and therefore the retailer's account is going to be credited.
7. The payment gateway will forward the response to the retailer's merchant account server.
8. The merchant account server will relay the response to the customer to let him know if the order was successful or not.
9. This process will only take a couple of seconds and at the top of the settlement period, the customer's issuing bank will deposit the entire amount of cash within the transaction details to the retailer's account. Payment gateways usually log all the delicate information in business transactions to make sure that it's securely transferred from consumers to retailers.
