I'm looking to set up a chesed fund for an organization, and will be taking credit cards as one of the ways to donate.
Curios if while using a laptop will I be able to go onto the payment page and attach the Card reader to pull the credit card info off by inserting that reader into my laptop and swiping?
Or a program that allows one to use a reader on a laptop?
Has anyone tried this first hand?
I don't currently have a reader with me, so can't try on my end. If someone has a minute on their hands which can try for me to see if it works and would pull the info into the form.
Or another idea? Thanks guys.
The simple USB card readers can read one or both rows of the data encoded on the magnetic strip of a CC. It’s usually most of the info that’s visible on the card, e.g. card number, expiration date, name etc (but not CVV). If you use something like that it would just be to streamline data entry and to prevent data entry issues. The data would go into a software- or internet-based payment gateway and get submitted for processing.
Even that would be complicated because you would somehow need to program your computer to enter the correct data into the correct fields. So basically, it’s not a viable solution.
Additionally, you’d pay more for CC processing because you’re just entering the card info, so it processes at a higher no-card-present rate (it’s like the card isn’t being swiped because the numbers are being entered).
What you need is a POS terminal (credit card swiping device) that connects to the computer. This way the data is captured and processed by that device (possibly over the computer’s internet connection, or via wireless connection) in an encrypted way. You don’t ever get the card info to store, just a response code and confirmation number of it went through successfully.
What you should do is contact one of the Frum credit card processing companies, they have sales reps who know all the various options they have and the pros/cons of each and can guide you on what’s best for you. You can even shop around to see who offers you the best solutions at the best rates.
If you need to capture the card info for future processing, that’s a liability as well, since you need to be PCI compliant. Some processors might have a solution for this where you don’t store the card info but they store a tokenized version of it that can be used for recurring transactions.