A real time or 'live' gateway system is automated and will communicate a transaction made from your website by anyone on the net directly into your merchant account usually without you knowing.
Therefore you have no control in the process and are entirely dependant on automatic fraud screening processes to protect you. If those fraud processes get it wrong then it isn't the gateway or your merchant account bank that pays for any financial loss incurred by the merchant and the inevitable charge back fees, its usually the online business owner .... YOU!
However, the new PCI DSS compliant manual payment gateway system puts you in total control over what credit cards you accept and don't accept. This adds a new and powerful level of protection online business owners have been pleading for for years. This, combined with the watershed accomplishment that sensitive credit card details are finally no longer permanently stored on the internet by the gateway makes the manual system significantly more secure in all areas for all three parties - the merchant account provider (usually a bank), the online business owner and the cardholder. To read why this is, please visit our security section
Credit Card Payment Gateway Security.
The Payment Gateway
