[asterisk-users] OT: Re: Credit Card processing machines

[Jeff LaCoursiere]

On Wed, 18 Feb 2009, Richard Lyman wrote:

> bilal ghayyad wrote:
>> And is there a bank accept to give such kind of communication?
>>
>> The user was able to dial his card number and the amount from his phone (or IP Phone registered with Asterisk), and Asterisk communicate with the bank or company credit card provider?
>>
>> How the user will enter $50.25?
>> What about expiration date of the credit card?
>>
>> Regards
>> Bilal
>>
>
> There are already touch tone merchant services available, google 'touchpay'.
>
> To answer your question, yes, dial a number for the processor, enter
> merchant number, enter transaction type, enter amount xxxx (dollars and
> cents, $10 would be 1000), enter exp date (also 4 digits), wait for read
> back of auth number or denial response.
>
> Obviously this is a subject you need to discuss with your
> merchant/processor provider.
>

I think there is a deeper meaning in the question.  Bilal, you are missing 
a piece of software in the middle.  Yes, you can call your processor 
directly and enter your merchant code, the CC, the amount, and get an 
approval (this is what a cashier will do if their CC machine is down, for 
example).  I don't think this is what you are looking for.

Allow me to assume that you have a potential product that you would like 
an IVR to accept payment for.  You need to write an AGI script or a very 
clever dialplan that will prompt the customer for the appropriate 
information, then wrap it all up nicely and send it to your processor. 
Your AGI or dialplan script will then be able to tell the customer that 
the payment was accepted and instructions for delivering the product, or 
that it was denied and hang up on them :)

I'm sure someone has written this AGI already.  There are probably pay-for 
IVRs you could buy and integrate.  You could write it yourself, or pay 
someone here on the list to write it for you.  Its actually not that 
difficult.

In all cases, however, you will need to make an arrangement with your bakn 
to accept credit card payments and get the details for how to send 
transactions.  There are MANY processors that will accept transactions 
over the net using various protocols.  I've used IC Verify in the past, 
for instance.

Hope this helps,

j