e-Path Merchant Requirements

To start to accept credit cards safely online using e-Path, you will need the following ...

1. A merchant account facility at a bank that allows you to manually charge credit card payments received by card not present/non face to face means. This usually means the facility is MOTO (mail order telephone order) or MST (merchant submitted transaction) approved.
2. Agree to, and operate in, strict compliance with our Terms Of Service - Merchant Agreement.

Understanding how things work

e-Path is the highly secure CDU and PCI DSS compliant payment gateway system to where your customers will enter their credit cards details to effect an online payment authorisation to you.

Once you are in receipt of their payment authorisation you then enter it into your manual merchant account or EFTPOS terminal or mobile merchant account device to charge the card, in exactly the same way you would need to do if someone phoned you with a payment, faxed you with a payment or sent you a payment via mail order.

The actual card processing is therefore done by you directly into your bank via a bank operated system. No expensive third parties involved in the process and most importantly of all, no blind e-commerce transactions being performed by anonymous individuals directly into your merchant account from the open internet without you knowing - as would be the case with an expensive real time payment gateway system!

The right merchant account types

If you already have a merchant account facility, such as an EFTPOS terminal, and the system is approved for you to charge into it credit cards received from over the telephone, fax machine, normal postal mail and ad hoc from the internet (MOTO/MST enabled), then you will not need to go to the added further expense of establishing a completely new and expensive internet based merchant account facility to accept credit cards from your online customers.

You can easily use your existing merchant account which you are already paying for!

If you don't have a merchant account then you will need one. You don't need to use an EFTPOS terminal of course, there are many types of merchant accounts available and mostly all of them, if approved by the bank for the purpose, will allow you to charge into it credit card payment received by phone, fax, mail order and ad hoc from the internet.

A manual merchant account for MOTO (mail order telephone order) or MST (merchant submitted transaction) processing usually will only cost in the area of $30.00 per year plus the usual range of bank fees and charges that differ from one bank to the next. These types of manual merchant accounts facilities can come with access to a secure bank site, just like internet banking, to where you can easily login to enter credit card payments to charge them - a great little low cost and secure system.

The manual (MOTO/MST) version of the Commonwealth Banks' new eVolve service is an excellent example of a merchant account facility that enables you to directly login to a secure bank owned site to enter credit cards to charge them. This is a user-friendly and highly secure service that, very critically, guarantees you are the ONLY one entering credit card payments into your own merchant account. ANZ's manual merchant account bundled with CardLink is another similar manual merchant account example.

Take control, lower costs and give yourself better protection

Since the PCI DSS and the renewed priorities on security, manual (MOTO/MST) merchant account types are becoming increasingly more popular with security conscious merchant account providers (banks) and business owners alike because they guarantee the bank approved merchant account owner is the ONLY one performing the credit card charge into the merchant account facility.

Well known risks associated with the costly real time system that blindly attempts to process any credit card payment entered into it online by any anonymous person on the open internet directly into the merchant account without you knowing - which is the number one way credit card fraud is perpetrated in the world today, do not exist when you have a manual merchant account facility and are in control of things.

You still need to be vigilant of course because you are accepting card not present payments, but with a manual merchant account your merchant account facility is not sitting accessible to the population of the internet.

Your bank supplied merchant account and its input/charging interface will of course have all the fraud screening mechanisms and safe guards built-in as required by industry security standards and card vendors, but with e-Path this is IN ADDITION to you uniquely being in full and total control over what payments are accepted and entered into your own private merchant account in the first place. The best of both worlds!

It may be interesting to note that many companies and organisations choose e-Path solely because of this critically important extra level of defence. As a real world example, one of Australia's leading web hosting operations, Netports, uses e-Path to accept credit card payments online for this sole reason.

Despite Netports being within a 'high risk' industry, known for its high credit card fraud rate, Netports remains 100% fraud free since e-Path took over as its online payment method late 2006 - a truly remarkable achievement made possible not only because of e-Path but also because of Netports' own highly effective buyer checking and validation processes.

To confirm this directly, view mention located bottom of Netports Acknowledgements & Disclaimer page.

Getting it right with your bank the first time

There are substantial risks associated with accepting e-commerce credit card payments online and having them processed 'live' and blindly on the open internet using a 'real time' payment processing gateway all done without you knowing about it. In fact it is the number one way credit card fraud is perpetrated online in the world today.

Therefore it is very important to understand one of e-Path's most powerful security advantages - e-Path is not a third party e-commerce credit card processing gateway and so won't be listed as one by any bank.

e-Path does not process ecommerce transactions 'live' and blindly on the open internet like real time payment processing gateways do. e-Path does not allow the automatic accepting of orders and the 'live' processing of e-commerce credit card transactions entered online by anonymous individuals on the open internet.

With e-Path and a manual (MOTO/MST) merchant account from a bank you are uniquely in total and absolute control of what you accept online and what is charged into your merchant account.

You are NOT risking it with 'live' ecommerce transactions being done blindly online and into your merchant account without you knowing. e-Path and a manual merchant account is also a much less expensive system as well.

When you apply for a manual merchant account at a bank to allow you to charge credit cards that come to you by phone, fax, mail order and ad hoc from the internet you may need to ensure your bank understands e-Path does NOT process e-commerce transactions 'live' and blindly in real time on the open internet, otherwise they will expect e-Path to be a third party credit card payment processing gateway, which we are certainly not.

An important warning - ensure you use PCI DSS compliant services

Ensuring you do things right in accordance with PCI rules is now critically important. Even after the e-Path service has fulfilled our function e-Path Pty Ltd believes it has a professional duty of responsibility and care towards protecting not only our gateway customers directly but also their cardholder customers as well.

Therefore, e-Path gateway customers are reminded to make sure the manual merchant account facility provided by their bank and subsequent card handling practices are PCI DSS compliant.

e-Path is not to be associated with any service, facility or practice, either directly or indirectly, from any bank or merchant account provider that is not PCI DSS compliant.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: e-Path Pty Ltd is not a bank nor is affiliated with any bank. Therefore, advice contained on this page is provided as a courtesy only and should not be considered as anything more than a guide. For all information on merchant account facility services please contact the bank of your choice.