Payment Gateway Features

Cardstream’s Payment Gateway accepts and processes all major card types. In a global marketplace with increasing cross-border spend from tourism and online transactions, it is important to offer end Merchants the ability to accept all major card types. By providing global cardholders with the flexibility to pay with their preferred card, end Merchants will have more opportunities to increase payment conversions.

Cardstream offers Card Security Code (also known as CV2, CVV, CSC) checks, as well as Address Verification System checks (AVS) to strengthen the transaction when the cardholder is using a card that they have the right to use. Cardstream also recommends the use of 3-D Secure (Verified by Visa (VBV) and MasterCard SecureCode MSC), again to strengthen the transaction’s security. Cardstream can offer 3-D Secure with every E-Commerce Merchant Account using the Payment Gateway.

3-D Secure authentication was developed by Visa with the intention of improving E-Commerce payments’ security and cardholder confidence. MasterCard has also adopted the service, along with JCB and Amex. The full 3-D Secure service is available using the Cardstream Payment Gateway and there is no additional charge for this service.

Fundamentally, 3-D Secure allows the cardholder to create a unique password for their relevant debit or credit card. This works very much like the PIN would with a PDQ machine in order to authenticate a payment, as only the cardholder should know that password.

3-D Secure stands for 3 Domain Server, relating to the three parties involved with the process: the Merchant, the Acquirer and the card issuer. This process is the most recent of fraud prevention services available for E-Commerce Merchants and cardholders to use.

In addition, 3-D Secure also assists the Merchant’s liability cover for each transaction authenticated by the process. We would suggest checking with your Acquirer as to what exactly this covers. Chargebacks can still happen, as this will still be decided by your Acquirer.

Further information about 3-D Secure can be found within the relevant integration guides.

Fraud is the UK’s greatest threat to payment security, often being used to finance further crime. It can also have a damaging effect on your business. Cardstream’s fraud prevention solutions help in preventing card transaction fraud from ever taking place.

Our in-house Velocity Checking and various country and card blocking technologies allow you to have complete control over the traffic through your Gateway. You can focus on growing your business: we take care of security. Cardstream also integrates with specialist third party fraud management solutions to enhance your fraud prevention tools further.

A comprehensive fraud monitoring and prevention system is built into the Payment Gateway and managed within the Merchant Management System. It is used to protect Merchants and minimise fraud by enabling them to set transaction frequency limits and card usage within a specific timeframe.

Payment transactions are reviewed for repeating patterns within a defined period of time. The check can be performed based on various sets of data such as number of transactions or value of transactions over a given time period.

There are two different responses that the Gateway can present. A soft limit will notify the Merchant by email that a threshold has been met; or a hard limit which will fail a transaction if the threshold is met.

A DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack is an attempt to make an online service unavailable by flooding the bandwidth of a web server with huge amounts of traffic. DDoS attacks are becoming more prevalent in the news, with many high profile websites disrupted by these attacks. Cardstream has partnered with a leading cloud-based DDoS mitigation solution provider that provides with an enterprise level global solution, offering 365, 24/7 protection against the largest DDoS attacks.

This provides you with absolute peace of mind that, no matter the security issue, your payment flow is unaffected. Please contact us to find out more about this critical service.

With every transaction that passes successfully through the Cardstream Payment Gateway, the system raises a Cross Reference (sometimes known as a Token). These Cross References can be used in lieu of card details for the purpose of repeat or recurring payments, as well as refunds based upon an existing payment.

The Cross Reference will allow transactions to be processed for the same or more or less than the original amount, giving you full flexibility to run subscription, membership or any kind of recurring payments business.

Some businesses use this service as a PCI DSS compliant Card Storage facility, too. This is entirely possible and can be used by processing a full transaction or pre-auth. If you require any further information, please contact us.

As an added benefit, Cardstream does not charge for the use of these Cross References, Tokens or Card Storage.

This service is also known as the Real Time Updater Service, Visa Account Updater (VAU) or MasterCard Automatic Billing (ABU) Updater.

The Account Updater allows the Merchant to receive updated cardholder data from participating Acquirers, Merchants and Card Issuers. As expiring cards are renewed or lost cards replaced, the updated data allows for a seamless recurring or automated card billing process to take place, reducing the risk of service cancellation.

Merchants receive refreshed cardholder data without making outbound calls – producing an uninterrupted customer payment experience; increasing authorisation approval rates; and improving revenue retention.

The Virtual Terminal has been designed for Merchants to use with ease when taking mail order or secure telephone payments. The secure environment allows a user to process credit and debit card payments, as well as refund transactions, all in real time.

MMS users are able to operate the system under different permissions. This is an ideal solution for call centres, sales clerks and larger organisations who wish to restrict the ability to view transaction information or process refunds. The Virtual Terminal is a web based portal and can be easily accessed through a desktop, tablet or mobile device.

Payment automation is becoming more important in business today. IVR solutions provide a reliable and cost effective way of providing 24/7 card payments. Cardstream’s Payment Gateway has been proven to operate well with leading IVR specialists and Merchants who require this level of automation and sophistication.

The Cardstream Payment Gateway is currently processing IVR card payments across many industries, from parking and PCN, to financial services and local authorities. The use of IVR and our Payment Gateway has demonstrably reduced the manual input requirements of the staff who process payments.

The Pay Button function gives the Merchant the ability to create an HTML link that can be embedded into HTML content (eg a website or HTML website). When clicked, it will allow a payment to be taken via the hosted form that will be pre-populated with the data specified when creating the link within the Merchant Management System. A QR Code can also be generated using this method.

We offer your Merchants and their cardholders the ability to collect a receipt for any transactions they process. The receipts contain details of the sale, such as the address information of the cardholder; the cross reference number; and the Acquiring and Issuing bank. Cardstream gives clients all the information they need to manage a sale. Cardstream Reseller Partners receive the receipt fully in their own branding. The Partner’s brand is reinforced and enhanced to both their Merchants and their respective end-customers.