If a merchant operates in an e-commerce environment to sell their goods or services, a payments gateway would be involved in processing those online credit card transactions. A payments gateway facilitates the transfer of information between a payment portal (like a website or virtual terminal) and the acquiring bank. It encrypts sensitive information like card numbers to make sure everything is secure (i.e. PCI compliant) throughout the process. Authorize.net is the most popular gateway. However, there are many others. Typically, monthly fees range from free to $20 per month with transaction fees ranging from none to 12 cents.
What Is A Gateway?
