Date: Tue, 29 Nov 2005 17:34:33 +0000
From: Neil Harris <usenet(a)tonal.clara.co.uk>
Subject: Credit card processing for forthcoming
fundraiser: Was: Re:
[Wikitech-l] pages update call :-)
To: Wikimedia developers <wikitech-l(a)wikimedia.org>
Cc: board(a)wikimedia.org
If there's going to be another fundraiser soon, does
anyone know if any
progress has been made towards accepting credit card
donations?
I believe that this could significantly improve the
amount of money
donated, by removing a barrier to donation for
people would like to
donate but do not have PayPal-style accounts, and do
not want the hassle
of money orders, inter-bank-transfers and so on.
Online credit card processing actually fits within the
expertise of my day job so hopefully I can be of some
help. In order to directly accept credit card
payments the Wikimedia Foundation will have to
establish a "merchant" relationship with a credit card
payment system. At least in the U.S. there are two
basic types: processor and gateway. The former has
much more stringent requirements, including specific
network configurations (usually a leased-line
connection directly to the payment system) and a
lengthy certification process. Gateways are much
simpler, and some allow connecting to their payment
servers over the Internet using generic protocols such
as HTTP. The drawback to using gateways are that they
are middle-men whose services are simply wrappers on
top of processor specifications which the Foundation
could just as well directly implement.
The choice thus comes down to whether the increased
cost of using a gateway exceeds the headache of
directly dealing with a processor. If the Foundation
wants to directly handle credit cards payments then
the first step is to talk with the payment systems
about rates.
I am confused, though, as to why PayPal is not a
viable option. Every payment system imposes some sort
of per-transaction fee, and the 3% transaction amount
charge reflects not another part of PayPal's cut, but
simply the fact that the merchant receives money from
the card holder's bank immediately while the card
holder is given a 20-30 day grace period before
interest accrues on their new balance. Thus switching
from PayPal may not necessarily save much on costs.
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