Facilitates the submission and routing of credit card and Charge1 Check
service payment transactions on behalf of its client merchants to the
processing networks in real-time—24 hours a day, seven days a week. The
Charge1 Payment Gateway supports all types of merchant business models,
including: from Web sites, at retail (physical locations where payment is
presented directly to the merchant by the customer at the time of purchase),
mail order/telephone order (MOTO) call and fulfillment centers, and from
wireless devices.

Charge1 also provides merchants with business and transaction enhancing
products, such as Charge1 check services, Automated Recurring Billing, and
Fraud Detection Suite.

Primarily, Charge1 provides payment gateway or IP payment processing
services to Web sites, retail (physical location where payment is presented
directly to the merchant by the customer at the time of purchase), MOTO, and
mobile merchants.

Charge1 also provides other value adding payment processing products that
help merchants enhance transaction processing, streamline their business,
and save time and money. Some of Charge1’s value-products are: Automated
Recurring Billing (ARB), Fraud Detection Suite, and support for Verified by
Visa and MasterCard® SecureCode™. In addition, Charge1 offers an exclusive
electronic check payment option, Charge1 check services.

The Charge1 Payment Gateway supports all types of merchant business models,
including: from Web sites, at retail (physical locations where payment is
presented directly to the merchant by the customer at the time of purchase),
mail order/telephone order (MOTO) call and fulfillment centers, and from
wireless devices for mobile merchants. For more information about what
Charge1 can do for you, see our Merchant Solutions page.

In the credit card payments process, Charge1 sits between the merchant and
the payment processing entity (e.g., FDMS, TSYS Acquiring Solutions (SM),
Card One International) that does business with the merchant’s bank. Charge1
also has a relationship with the payment processing entity, which allows
Charge1 to pass transaction information on behalf of the merchant via the
Internet (over a proprietary and secure connection).

A typical Charge1 credit card transaction flows in the following way:

A credit card transaction is submitted to the Charge1 Payment Gateway either
from a merchant Web site or directly from a merchant.
Charge1 automatically passes the transaction to the Acquiring Bank’s
Processor (the payment processor that does business with the merchant’s
bank).
The Acquiring Bank’s Processor passes the transaction to the Credit Card
Interchange System (an entity that routes payment information to the parties
involved in settling a credit card transaction).
The Credit Card Interchange System routes the transaction to the appropriate
Credit Card Issuer (the bank or organization that issued the customer their
credit card).
The Credit Card Issuer approves or declines the transaction and passes both
the transaction results and the appropriate funds back through the Credit
Card Interchange System.
The Credit Card Interchange System relays the transaction results to the
Acquiring Bank’s Processor.
The Acquiring Bank’s Processor relays the transaction results to Charge1.
Charge1 stores the transaction results and sends it back to the merchant and
customer.
The Credit Card Interchange System also passes the appropriate funds for the
transaction to the Acquiring Bank (the merchant’s bank).
The Acquiring Bank passes remaining funds to the merchant’s bank account.
On average, steps 1-8 take only 3 to 4 seconds!

Charge1 supports all major credit cards: Visa, MasterCard, Discover,
American Express, Japan Credit Bureau (JCB), Diner’s Club. Charge1 also has
an exclusive electronic check solution, Charge1 check services.

A reseller is a company or organization that distributes a service or
product on behalf of a separate corporation or manufacturer. Many large
companies benefit from developing a reseller community through which they
are able to sell their services and products. In the payments industry,
resellers are most often Independent Sales Organizations (ISOs), Merchant
Services Providers (MSPs), and Value-Add Resellers (VARs). These type of
organizations will typically provide merchants with a wide range of business
enhancing services and products.

Submitting transactions over the Internet can be as secure as providing
credit card or check payments in person. All parties involved with
processing any payment transaction—including customers, merchants, merchant
service providers or businesses that handle customer payment information,
and payment gateways—should be vigilant about protecting customer payment
information.

For merchants and merchant service providers that may handle customer
payment information, there are many payments industry security initiatives
and programs in place that are designed to safeguard customer payment and
other sensitive information—programs with which in many cases they are
required to prove compliance. As you seek merchant service providers to work
with, be sure to find out about their efforts to meet industry standard
security requirements and practices. A professional organization will do
everything in their capacity to meet and maintain the highest levels of
Internet security—which is why Charge1 is compliant with maintaining the
highest industry security standards.

For the purpose of risk management and to be able to process certain types
of subsequent transactions (e.g., recurring billing, refunds), yes, Charge1
will store customer payment information in a highly secured database for a
limited period of time. However, all sensitive or personally identifying
customer information that is stored by Charge1 is masked in the Merchant
Interface and in merchant reporting. In addition, in order to maintain
compliance with several card association regulated security compliance
programs, internal access to customer information is highly restricted.

Once customer payment information has been stored for 120 days (from the
date it was originally received), the Charge1 purges the full information
and stores only masked information.

Charge1 is uncompromising when it comes to providing merchants with secure,
trustworthy payment processing services. For receiving and transmitting
customer payment information Charge1 implements the most advanced Internet
security protocols including 128-bit Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). On top of
that, Charge1 consistently employs an extensive number of strong practices,
procedures and industry leading technologies to maintain tight security for
the entire payment gateway platform. Charge1 also invests time and money to
maximize the security surrounding the payment gateway.

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) is an Internet protocol that safeguards
electronic communications between two or more computers. For a communication
or transaction that is transmitted over an “end to end” SSL connection, the
computer initiating the transmission will open an SSL connection. This means
that when Computer A sends a request to Computer B to transmit information,
Computer A will include a digital certificate—a complex authentication tool
that is basically a third-party issued certification that Computer A is a
trustworthy source. Computer B then accepts the transmission and, in the
event that Computer B has information to return to computer A, the SSL
connection may remain open until the transaction between the two computers
is complete.

Server-side SSL can also be used in the event that Computer A doesn’t have
the necessary digital certificate or the ability to open an SSL connection
to submit a communication to Computer B. However, Computer B may have some
other means of authenticating the trustworthiness of Computer A or other
computers that are submitting communication requests. Any transmissions sent
to other computers by computer B will be transmitted via an SSL connection
to those computers. In this case, the SSL connection is terminated once
Computer B has completed its transmission.

When transmissions are sent over an SSL connection, they cannot be
intercepted, viewed or modified by other parties on the Internet. As such,
customer payment information is transmitted securely.

Internet Protocol (IP) is the method of transmitting information and
communications between computer systems and networks via the Internet. For
the payments industry, the ability to use IP to transmit customer payment
information directly to the processing network has revolutionized the way
merchants run business—opening doors to a wide range of new payments
acceptance opportunities, including from Web sites and wireless devices, to
helping store-front merchants cut costs and speed up checkout lines.

Charge1 recognizes that fraud may well be the biggest challenge facing our
merchants—which is why helping merchants protect themselves from fraud is
one of our highest priorities. There are several ways Charge1 protects
merchants from fraud:

Unlike other payment gateways, Address Verification Service (AVS) and Card
Code Verification (CCV) tools come with our standard payment gateway
accounts—helping merchants build their fraud protection program from the
ground up. Charge1 has an established and dedicated Fraud Management
Department, dedicated to the daily monitoring of merchant accounts and
development of merchant protection practices and program.
Based on extensive research and criteria developed by our dedicated Fraud
Management Department, the Charge1 Fraud Detection Suite (FDS) provides an
unrivaled set of transaction filters and tools that empower merchants to
identify, prevent and manage potentially fraudulent transactions. For more
information, see our FDS page.
Charge1 is continually investing money and resources into providing
merchants with the tools and information they need to protect themselves
from fraud.

Connecting your Web site to the Charge1 Payment Gateway requires some
additional code and development for your Web site. To do this, you will need
to make arrangements with your company’s Web developer or a contracted Web
developer.Your Web developer may be able to help you choose the connection
method that is right for your business.

To accept payment from a Web site, you will first need a Charge1 Payment
Gateway account and a merchant bank account (a type of bank account that
allows you to collect proceeds from online transactions).

You will also need to make arrangements with your company’s Web developer or
a contracted Web developer to assist you with technical integration. See our
Connection Methods page for more information about our secure connection
methods. Your Web developer may be able to help you choose the connection
method that is right for your business.

Yes! Retail merchants can harness the power and speed of the Internet to
submit payment transactions, cutting costs and speeding up checkout lines.
Charge1 offers a variety of POS solutions for all types of retail merchants
through our partner POS solutions providers. In fact, many of our partner
POS solutions providers offer POS hardware and software that is already
integrated to the Charge1 Payment Gateway.

To process your retail transactions via the Charge1 Payment Gateway, you
will need a Charge1 Card Present Payment Gateway account, and a Card Present
merchant bank account (a type of bank account that allows you to collect
proceeds from retail transactions).

Many of our partner POS solutions providers offer POS hardware and software
that is already integrated to the Charge1 Payment Gateway. If you would like
more information about what is necessary to integrate directly to the
Charge1 Payment Gateway.

Yes, you will need a separate Charge1 Card Present payment gateway account.
Contact us for more information about signing up for a Card Present account.

A merchant bank account is a type of financial institution or bank account
that allows merchants to collect proceeds from consumer bank account or
credit card payment transactions. A Card Present (CP) merchant account is
used by merchants that process IP transactions received at a physical
location, where payment is physically presented to the merchant by the
customer at the time of the transaction. A Card Not Present (CNP) merchant
account is used by merchants that receive payments electronically or in
situations where payment is not physically presented to the merchant by the
consumer at the time of the transaction.

A standard Charge1 Payment Gateway account includes the following:

Connection Methods – Several options including AIM, SIM and Card Present.

Merchant Interface – A password-protected Web site that allows merchants to
manage transactions, change security and account settings, and generate
reports.
Virtual Terminal – Included in the Merchant Interface, the Virtual Terminal
allows merchants to manually key in and submit transactions easily and
quickly.

Batch Upload – Included in the Merchant Interface, the Batch Upload feature
allows merchants to upload multiple transaction at once and facilitates
uploads from a spreadsheet or proprietary business application.

Address Verification Service (AVS) – A fraud prevention tool that allows
merchants to filter transactions that are submitted with billing addresses
that do not match the cardholder’s billing address on file at the card
issuing bank.

Card Code Verification (CCV) – A fraud prevention tool that allows merchants
to filter transactions that are submitted with a card code that does not
match the cardholder’s card code on file at the issuing bank.

Free Customer Support – Charge1 provides live technical and account support
five days a week, as well as access to online documentation and user guides.

The Merchant Interface is a password-protected Charge1 Web site that allows
merchants to manage transactions, change security and account settings,
generate reports, and sign up for value-adding products.

The Virtual Terminal is a feature of the Merchant Interface that allows
merchants to manually key in and submit transactions easily and quickly.

Batch Upload is a feature of the Merchant Interface that allows merchants to
upload multiple transactions at a time from a spreadsheet or proprietary
business application.

Charge1 ‘s exclusive electronic check payment solution allows merchants to
post charge and refund transactions directly to a customer’s bank account
from their Web site. For merchants already processing credit card
transactions using Charge1’s check service is easy. Charge1 provides
combined transaction management, reporting and customer support.

ARB is a CHARGE1’s value-add product that allows Web and MOTO merchants to
create a recurring billing schedule or “subscription” for the purchase of
goods or services. Merchants enter transactions and customer billing
information, specify a billing amount and billing interval and ARB does the
rest—automatically generating subsequent transactions for the duration of
the subscription.

FDS is a powerful, rules-based set of transaction filters and Internet
Protocol (IP) address tools designed specifically to help Web merchants
identify, manage and prevent costly fraudulent transactions.

Even though Charge1 is a Card One International company www.Card1.com,
Charge1 has a relationship with many other processing platforms.First Data
Merchant Services (Omaha and Nashville processing platforms),Paymentech
(Tampa processing platform), and TSYS Acquiring Solutions (SM) are only a
few that Charge1 is compatible with.

Please call us at 1-310-826-7000 or email us at support@charge1.com.