Who is EcomMerchant For
Payment Services


		We offer a range of payment services for our customers and we have categorized the service offering below dependant on the size of your organization. Although the majority of customers fit into the Small to Medium sized Company bracket there maybe bespoke service requirements that are available to Corporate businesses that are more suitable. Please select which type of Company you are below:

The Ecom Merchant Service allows payments to be taken in one of two ways, over the Internet or over the telephone. For Internet transactions, our Pay Page mechanism will allow you to seamlessly integrate your web site into our payment gateway. It will allow your customers to make payments to you in an easy to understand way and will authorize payments typically in under one second. If you would rather take payments over the telephone then we have a control panel to login to and take payments via our virtual terminal. You can decide on either of these solutions or if you prefer you can have both solutions enabled for a small additional charge.

Payment Service Options

The optional payment services include a number of add-on features that will enrich your EcomMerchant account and enable you to benefit from extended functionality within your account. The optional services are explained below:

Multi-Currency (Accept payments in different currencies)

Multi-Lingual Payment Page (Payment Page supporting many languages)

3-D Secure Payments (For Internet transactions)

Anti-Fraud (This service is included for free)

Extended Data Elements (Records more information about a transaction)

Repeat Payments

Additional Reporting (Includes downloadable reports)

Corporate

Security (PCI)


		Total Web Solutions was established in 1995 solely to provide Internet services to businesses. We have grown in size and reputation to enable us to deliver solutions to our customers in all aspects of an Internet Business Venture. We are ISO 9001:2000 accredited and consider the quality of our services to be first rate, as do our customers. We are also PCI (Payment Card Industry) accredited and have been scrutinized by Visa and Mastercard and other leading card scheme brands, to ensure that the credit card clearing services we provide our customers are safe and secure. Total Web Solutions has been PCI Level 1 (The highest level) Accredited since 2005 when PCI was first introduced. We were previous to this standard also AIS accredited which has now been absorbed into the PCI standard. Our knowledge and fortitude in this area has allowed us to become a leading Payment Service Provider and to offer secure payment solutions to all manner of businesses. We take security of our networks seriously and as part of our PCI program we employ ethical hackers to ensure our service is as secure as possible. The PCI program has enabled us to take away most of the responsibility and worry of security from our customers by providing solutions which take the card details within our network rather than the customers network. This allows our customers to have peace of mind in the knowledge that security has been outsourced to a reputable Company. There are many questions surrounding PCI which have been included in our FAQ section to help you understand its implications. We endeavour to provide answers to most our your questions on PCI however we always recommend you discuss your concerns with your bank also. We believe choosing Total Web Solutions, as your payment service provider, is the right choice for your growing business and we will always endeavour to provide the best possible advice to your business so you get the best possible service from us.

FAQ

Q) How do I apply for a merchant account with a bank what is the procedure ?		A) Please complete our online application form by click the "Apply Now" link which is located in the menu bar. This information is forwarded to the Total Web Solutions sales department where it is processed and passed onto a bank for processing. The bank in turn will contact you to discuss your application and provide a quotation.

Q) Do I need a bank account to use the Ecom Merchant service with Total Web Solutions ?		A) It will be necessary for you to have a bank account for us to pay your credit card payments into. Without an account the funds would not be able to be credited to anywhere.

Q) If I want to take online credit card payments on my web site in one currency but have it paid into an account of another currency would this be possible ?		A) Yes, this is possible for currency transactions. You may have a Pound Sterling Bank account yet your customer base wants to pay in Japanese Yen. This is possible by setting up a Sterling to Yen Merchant number with the Bank. Total Web Solutions supports some many currencies with the option for more through agreed testing with the banks. We will always investigate currency requests by our customers.

Q) I already have a merchant account for processing cards in my shop, so why do I need another merchant account ?		A) Your account will be a retail or a customer present merchant account. There are different types of merchant account depending on how you take your payments. In this case you require an Internet Merchant Account (for Internet transactions) or a MOTO Account (for Mail Order/Telephone Order transactions) which will allow you to process cards through a registered and compliant Company like Total Web Solutions.

Q) How long will it take to set-up an Internet Merchant account with my bank ?		A) This depends on which bank you have decided to set-up an Internet merchant account with. Typically this should take two to three weeks however a maximum lead time of six weeks has been quoted by certain banks so please take this into consideration in your project time scales. Typically the quicker you respond to the banks quotation the quicker the account can be mobilized.

Q) Once I have a merchant account where do I go from here ?		A) Once Total Web Solutions is in receipt of your merchant number (if you receive your merchant number direct from the bank it is wise to forward this to Total Web Solutions as soon as possible) they can setup your EcomMerchant account. A test EcomMerchant account will be setup to enable you to test your account prior to enabling your account on the live system. A test script is provided to each customer and once Total Web Solutions is satisfied that you are processing credit cards correctly it will switch you over to the live system. Documentation is provided to facilitate the testing and integration of the service with your web site. For MOTO accounts no testing is necessary as all transactions are carried out through a virtual terminal in your provided EcomMerchant control panel.

Q) How will I know how many credit cards and what amounts my site has processed during a trading day ?		A) The EcomMerchant account comes with an extensive control panel that allows you to produce End Of Day Reports for all transactions and should allow you to perform other functions also including card refunds. Many features are available through the control panel including Anti-fraud, statistics, Pay Page look and Feel, account security and many many more.

Q) How long does it take to pay funds into my account after a credit card has been taken.		A) This largely depends on the bank you use and the card that was processed through your Merchant account. Typically it takes three to five days however American Express transactions can take longer. We do from time to time have problems sending the transactions to the bank for various technical reasons but any missed transactions get batched in the following days so you will always get your funds deposited to your account. All transactions are reconciled daily for each EcomMerchant account.

Q) What happens if your system is not working and is unable to process cards for whatever reason. Do you have any form of backup system or mechanism to ensure my site can still process card transactions ?		A) We have various mechanisms in place to protect us from such an event. We have an identical backup system in place that can be activate within 15 minutes of a major server failure. Our Card Processing System comprises of multiple servers and network devices and we have at least two of everything running at all times to ensure reliable and available service. During any downtime we also have a function which records all attempted transactions and we can re-process transactions when the service is back online. The customer who is making the purchase will not be aware there has been a problem.

Q) How secure is your network and servers as I have heard that credit card databases have been hacked on the Internet and I would not want my customers card details being exposed by purchasing products through my site?		A) We take security very seriously so much so that we are now externally audited by VISA and MASTERCARD to ensure our security meets their requirements plus some of Total Web Solutions own. We currently have redundantly deployed firewall and intrusion detection in place along with the secure storage of credit card data by storing in an encrypted format. Total Web Solutions is a PCI Level 1 Certified payment service provider and was one of the first accredited Companies in the world for this standard. We have worked with a number of security consultants to ensure our systems are as secure as possible and endeavour to introduce new features where practical to maintain the high levels of security our customers expect.

Q) What cards will my Ecom Merchant account accept when I go live with the service and is it possible to accept other cards ?		A) The Ecom Merchant account supports VISA, VISA DELTA/DEBIT, MASTERCARD, EURO CARD, JCB, SOLO and MAESTRO by default. We can also support both American Express and Diners Club but these have to be applied for separately.

Q) I am concerned that I may be subject to fraud on the Internet as I have heard that security is not very good on the Internet. What protections are in place to prevent fraud and stop us from getting charge backs from our customers ?		A) At Total Web Solutions we specialise in providing services that work and work well for our customers. Part of the service we provide to our customers using the EcomMerchant facility is the provision of an Anti-fraud feature in your control panel. This Anti-fraud allows you to perform up to 15 unique checks against possible fraud with some of those checks configurable by the customer. Features such as which countries to accept card transactions from, what level of security you would like purchasers to experience when making a payment to you. These features are all explained within the control panel to facilitate its use. This feature is also currently provided free of charge to EcomMerchant customers.
Q) I know that as a Payment Service Provider Total Web Solutions will charge a transaction fee for each transaction I put through my EcomMerchant account, however are there any other charges I should be aware of ?		A) Firstly when you use Total Web Solutions we aim to provide a cost effective payment processing solution to our customers. With this in mind we reward our customers by providing discounts to customers who process card transactions through us over certain volumes. Total Web Solutions are confident that we provide the most cost effective payment service with no compromise on service than any leading service provider. With EcomMerchant accounts each transaction is chargeable and Total Web Solutions will bill for these transactions monthly in arrears. As well as this transaction charge the bank will also charge you for processing cards and there transaction charges will be determined by them. It is likely to be around 3% initially depending on your trading history and can drop to as low as 1% after several years trading or a good trading history with the bank. The majority of our customers are charged around 2.5%. Please take both the Total Web Solutions charges and the banks charges in consideration when determining your products/services prices on your web site.
Q) Is there any set-up charges with Total Web Solutions or the bank when applying for a merchant account ?		A) There are no setup charges from Total Web Solutions. The Bank however does typically charge depending on whether your business bank account is held with the same bank as the bank that supplies your merchant account. You should not be charged more than a �300 setup fee and this is a one off payment and you may get this back if you are unsuccessful in obtaining a merchant account. Please consult with your bank about these charges when signing up for a merchant account.
Q) Are there any other charges I should be aware of when setting up an Internet Merchant Account ?		A) Please see the link to "What Are The Costs" to understand all charges. For low volume customers an EcomMerchant account can cost as little as �10+VAT per month which I am sure you will agree is very reasonable indeed. Total Web Solutions operates a service driven charging scheme so if you do not have a particular service enabled then you do not pay for it. This means you only get charged for what you use.
Q) Why do I need to use Total Web Solutions, can I not just go direct to a bank ?		A) We have agreements in place with several UK banks to provide payment services to our customers. These services are based on the bank providing us with favourable rates so that we can pass those onto our customers. Customers would not be able to realise those rates if they had gone directly to the bank.
Q) What is PCI accreditation and do I need to be PCI Accredited ?		A) PCI stands for Payment Card Industry and is a standard born out of the card schemes requirement to make payment services more secure. Total Web Solutions is a level 1 PCI accredited company which is the highest level accreditation. We have become accredited so you do not have to and by using our Pay Page mechanism card details are seamlessly taken on our secure system which has been rigorously tested to the highest standards in security. There are scenarios where accreditation is required for a customer but this is usually at a much lower level (Level 4) whereby basic security principles must be upheld. Your bank will usually contact you about this to ensure your compliance in this regards.

What Are The Costs

MOTO PAYMENTS	�10.00 PER MONTH, up to 50 transactions / month. �0.20 - PER TRANSACTION, 51-99 transactions / month. �0.15 - PER TRANSACTION, 100-249 transactions / month. �0.10 - PER TRANSACTION, 250-999 transactions / month. �0.08 - PER TRANSACTION, above 1000 transactions / month.
ECOM PAYMENTS	�10.00 PER MONTH, up to 50 transactions / month. �0.20 - PER TRANSACTION, 51-99 transactions / month. �0.15 - PER TRANSACTION, 100-249 transactions / month. �0.10 - PER TRANSACTION, 250-999 transactions / month. �0.08 - PER TRANSACTION, above 1000 transactions / month.
ADD MOTO or ECOM to existing ECOM or MOTO	�1.00 - MONTHLY
ANTI-FRAUD	�0.00 - MONTHLY
ECOM PAYMENTS 3-D SECURE	�0.02 - PER TRANSACTION
MULTI-CURRENCY	�1.00 - MONTHLY
REPEAT PAYMENTS	�1.00 - MONTHLY
EXTENDED DATA ELEMENTS	�2.00 - MONTHLY
TRANSACTION REPORTING API	�2.00 - MONTHLY
MULTI-LINGUAL PAYPAGE / INTERFACE	�5.00 - MONTHLY
MOTO PAYMENT APPLET (per license)	�10.00 - MONTHLY
AUTOMATED TELEPHONE PAYMENTS	�10.00 - MONTHLY
DEFERRED PAYMENTS	�5.00 - MONTHLY
SUBSCRIPTION PAYMENTS	�20.00 - MONTHLY
MOBILE PHONE PAYMENTS	�0.20 - PER TRANSACTION
MULTI-MERCHANT MANAGEMENT INTERFACE	�5.00 - MONTHLY
BATCH REFUNDS	�10.00 - MONTHLY
STATISTICS	�3.00 - MONTHLY

Members of trade associations such as the FSB may qualify for reduced Internet Merchant Account set up fee and reduced processing rates with the acquiring banks - please make sure you include the associations you are a member of and the membership numbers when applying.

All charges are subject to VAT at the prevailing rate

Shopping Basket Support

Customers who will be taking payments through their web site are likely to want to integrate the EcomMerchant service using a shopping basket. A shopping basket provides purchasers with the ability to purchase more than one product and provides an easy flow from selecting products for purchase to completion of payment. For those customers who use a shopping basket solution on their web site we offer payment plug-ins to facilitate this. The list of shopping basket solutions we support is growing and we are happy to work with any shopping basket providers to integrate our payment mechanism to their solution (See Resellers / Developers section). Below is a list of some of the Shopping Baskets we support in alphabetical order:

Actinic Express is an easy to use online shopping cart solution that includes everything you need to set up and manage your own online shop. Whether you are a new start-up business, or an existing business looking to expand online, Actinic Express will get you trading on the internet, fast.

Introducing ClickCartPro 6: E-commerce surpassing your wildest dreams. Over three years in development. Tens of thousands of hours spent testing and enhancing. Search Engine Optimized (SEO) out of the box. Now integrated with 4 different databases.

CRE Loaded is the world�s foremost open source shopping cart for small to mid-sized online merchants.

PHP/MySQL shopping cart software with over 500 ecommerce features. Comes with an open source code, modular architecture, set of free skins and template-driven design. Supports all popular payment and shipping services.

CubeCart is a complete e-commerce solution which has a user base of more than a million stores globally. It is developed in the UK utilising PHP & MySQL technologies.

easywebstore is a powerful and easy to use UK based ecommerce development software solution with fully integrated shopping cart and a choice of over 10,000 ecommerce templates. It is the fastest and easiest way to build your own ecommerce enabled website and sell online.

Ecommerce Templates was set up with the aim of providing a powerful, low-cost e-commerce shopping cart software solution integrating into the main HTML editors: Dreamweaver, Frontpage and Expression Web as well as CSS layouts. There are no monthly fees and no setup charges and you are free to set up your own design.

ekmPowershop is the UK�s leading shopping cart provider, powering 1 in every 5 online shops in the UK. Fully hosted, with no contract, free support and unlimited products - ekmPowershop really is the quickest and easiest way to sell your products on the internet. Import/export products from your eBay store, export your orders to Sage and much more�

e-Merchant Pro is a comprehensive and easy to use shopping cart suitable for selling tens to ten thousands of products. The system is a world class, reliable and fully tested application. The suite includes an advanced product catalogue allowing unlimited categories and unlimited products.

osCommerce Online Merchant is an Open Source online shop e-commerce solution that is available for free under the GNU General Public License. It features a rich set of out-of-the-box online shopping cart functionality that allows store owners to setup, run, and maintain online stores with minimum effort.

ProductCart is a robust, PA-DSS validated shopping cart program. It provides hundreds of e-commerce features, is fully customizable, and blends seamlessly with any store design. It's integrated with UPS, FedEx, USPS, CanadaPost, eBay, QuickBooks, Stone Edge, POS systems, and more.

Turns your website into a shop in under 5 minutes. RomanCart is the easiest way to start taking orders on your website. Works with any website. No need to use templates to create your store. Create your website however you like... Dreamweaver, FrontPage, Notepad... or any other way you choose.

Stockashop's ecommerce website has everything you'll need to start your professional online shop straight away. It includes: business tools for exporting data, relating products, html marketing email, customer login, newsletters, currency options, shipping options.

TheBigSpider software provides a solution to new or existing businesses who want to trade over the internet by providing them with a 100% complete solution for a professional internet shop; giving them complete confidence and control at the same time.

Topshopper II Shopping Cart has been developed specifically for web developers and individuals working with small and medium sized enterprises that want an affordable, reliable and easily integrated e�commerce shopping cart system.

UniTrader Lite is a great low-cost solution for smaller shops or catalogues. If you've got 25 products or less this is the online shop product for you! What's even better is that it comes with unlimited product option variations.

Viart Shop is a PHP e-commerce package supporting MySQL, PostgreSQL and ODBC connected databases. Viart Shop aims to create a single system capable of performing all the functions required to run your business online

VirtueMart is an Open Source E-Commerce solution to be used together with a Content Management System (CMS) called Joomla!. Joomla! and VirtueMart are written in PHP and can be used in typical PHP/MySQL environments.

X-Cart shopping cart software is: Fast; SEO-friendly; Comes with tons of features; Easy to customize. It is present on the market since 2001 and used by tens thousands on-line merchants worldwide.

Zen Cart truly is the art of e-commerce; free, user-friendly, open source shopping cart software. The ecommerce web site design program is being developed by a group of like-minded shop owners, programmers, designers, and consultants that think ecommerce web design could be and should be done differently.

Apply Now
Resellers / Developers


		We work with Developers and Resellers to ensure that Integration of Shopping Baskets and Web Sites into our payment gateway is as seamless as possible. Click on one of the links below to find out more about becoming a Reseller or Developer:

Resellers

Developers

Ecommerce Enquiry Form

Please complete all of this form. Should you require any further information then please contact our sales department on 0844 856 0681

1) Contact Details:
Contact Name
Company Name
Company Address
Contact Phone Number
Contact Email Address

2) What type of business are you ?

3) What is the nature of your business ?

4) Give a brief description of what your company does ?

5) How long have you been trading ?

6) Do you currently have a merchant account with a bank; i.e. take credit cards through a card terminal or swipe box ?	Yes No

7) How soon do you want to get an Ecom Merchant service up and running so you can accept credit card payments through your web site ?

8) Do you have any specific questions you would like answered

9) Where did you hear about us?

Glossary


		Merchant	A merchant is effectively you, the customer. In this information the term customer and merchant will be used interchangeably.
		Purchaser	This will be your customer who purchases from you.
		API	Application Programming Interface - This will allow developers to call specific functions on our Gateway servers to perform specific tasks. These are for corporate customers only and generally not used by most business as they are either to complex to use or their functionality is far in excess of what is required.
		Pay Page	A web page that can be access over the Internet that asks the purchaser for their credit card details to purchase goods or services from the merchant. Each Pay Page is customizable to the merchants requirements and therefore are different for each merchant.
		Internet Merchant Account	IMA - This is a merchant account specifically for use for Internet transactions.
		MOTO	Mail Order / Telephone Order. Any orders taken over the telephone or via Mail Order by a merchant and processed through their Merchant Account is classed as a MOTO transaction.
		3-D Secure	This is the protocol (stands for 3-domain, purchaser, merchant and bank) used for Verified By Visa and MasterCard SecureCode Transactions.
		Applet	A program that runs on your computer that takes credit card details and passes them to the Total Web Solutions Payment Gateway securely for processing.
		Shopping Basket	This is a program that runs on a web server that collects information about products or services a purchaser wishes to acquire before passing them purchaser to our payment gateway. There are literally thousands of shopping baskets out there and Total Web Solutions supports a number of these however if your shopping basket is not listed we will work with developers to integrate it into our payment gateway.
		Control Panel	This is an administration tool that is available over the Internet that offers secure management of your Internet Merchant Account.
		PCI	Payment Card Industry - Is a standard setup to improve security of payments using credit and debit cards. The standard is very stringent and Total Web Solutions is accredited to the highest Level 1 standard. For more information about the standard please visit the PCI councils' web site.

Privacy

Your Privacy Explained

At Total Web Solutions we take your privacy seriously and our privacy statement is detailed below. This statement takes into account the possibility that you may sign up and order our Ecom Merchant service with us:

The information we collect

In order to provide you with an efficient service, we need to collect certain personal information.

When you submit your information via this website, we may need to collect contact and billing information about you to process the transaction and fulfil your order. This information may include, but is not limited to, details such as your name, your address and your credit card details and your account number. We will also need the up-to-date contact information for each service purchased, as set out in our Terms and Conditions.

What do we do with your personal information?

Total Web Solutions uses your personal information to process any transaction you undertake with us and for internal administration and analysis (for customer service issues and random quality checks for example). We do not sell, rent, trade or give away any of your personal information to third parties for marketing purposes without your consent. For these purposes only and with your consent only, we may send out your information to other countries including those outside the European Economic Area (EEA). Other countries offer differing levels of protection of personal information, not all of which may be as high as the UK.

When you place orders or access your account information, we offer the use of a secure server. The Secure Server Software (SSS) encrypts all information you input, before it is sent to us. Furthermore, as required by UK Data Protection Act 1984 and 1998, we follow strict security procedures in the storage and disclosure of your information, to prevent unauthorised access. Our security procedures may request proof of identity before we are able to disclose sensitive information about you.

Cookies

Cookies are small files we send to your browser which are stored on your computers hard disk. If you have registered with www.totalwebsolutions.com or secure.totalwebsecure.com then the computer may store an identifying code in the Cookie that will remember state between pages. Other than this, we do not store your password or any other information in the Cookie, or use it for any other purpose.

Consent

By disclosing your personal information to us using this website or over the telephone, you consent to the collection, storage and processing of your personal information by Total Web Solutions in the manner set out in this privacy statement.