[svlug] credit card banking by modem

[Rick Kwan]

The real point of this story is at the very bottom... Skip there
if you don't want the story...

For fun, I just called my small business bank, and asked about doing
credit card processing over the web.  It went something like this.

Banker:	How many customers do you have now?
Me:	Right now, only a few.	At the moment, we're handle
	everything through purchase orders.
Banker: Usually we don't recommend processing on the Internet until
	you've reached a certain volume.  Actually, we don't do the
	Internet transactions ourselves; we handle them through a
	third party.  What I can recommend is that we have a small
	software package which works with a dial-up modem.
... small discussion about pricing ...
Me:	I presume this is a Windows package.
Banker:	Yes, it is because that's where the biggest volume is; you
	understand.  What do you have, a Mac?
Me:	No, but I usually try to stay as far away from Windows as
	I can.  Do you have a Mac version?
Banker: No, we only have it for Windows because that's where
	the biggest volume is; you understand.
Me:	I understand.  What does the third-party actually do?
Banker:	Actually, I'm not too sure; I only know my side of the picture.
Me:	Part of the reason I ask is because I am an Internet software
	developer.  Do you work with multiple third-party vendors?
Banker:	No, only this one.  We have a relationship with them, and then
	you'll create a relationship with them as well.

At this point, I got pretty much what I was after.  And I learned
that the third party is not an ISP, but a special transaction broker.

The point here is that Windows seems to have a very exclusive lock
on small business transactions.  The small business person cannot
do credit card processing via modem without Windows.  If a small
business only has one computer, Windows is what it'll have.
There is no choice.

At least, that is what I found.

I doubt if the bank hired someone to do its own proprietary
protocol.  It is probably something defined by ABA (American Banking
Association?), just like magnetic ink on checks.  So it should
be doable.  But is absolute lack of even a Mac choice bothered me.

Does anyone know differently?

--Rick Kwan, Lightsaber Computing
  rick.kwan at lightsaber.com