Real-Time Credit Card Processing

I have worked on a couple of sites that do live credit card billing, meaning the card is authorized and billed automatically and the customer given a success or failure message immediately. For both sites the credit card processing company was Veritrans. My open source fclib library includes functions to assist in interfacing PHP with Veritrans's perl MDK.

For one client, a major drinks company, I created an online order form with real-time credit card verification and charging. A daibiki (cash-on-delivery) option was also offered.

For the other client, a telecommunication company, the needs were more complex. In addition to initial billing we take a credit authorization. This is then used to bill the customer for usage at regular intervals. In addition, the credit card number is recorded in the database. To ensure this is secure the data is encrypted using public-key encryption. gpg is used to do the encryption and decryption. gpg (or PGP) is also used to encrypt customer information when sending order emails, ensuring privacy.