Using a Credit Card in a Checkout Process
A checkout process is a transaction that includes submitting an order on a website.
If you're considering providing credit card information in your checkout process, here are a few things to keep in mind:
The most important thing to remember is to not use a real credit card. Credit card processors frown upon this. Doing so could result in you losing your credit card processing abilities. Some credit card companies may also have an issue with this and flag the account, preventing you from getting a future card from their company.
There are numerous credit card numbers that are specifically used for testing purposes. We always recommend that you contact your credit card processor prior to using these testing numbers to ensure they are willing to allow you to use them. Most processors allow them; however, there are a handful that will not allow any type of automated testing.
If you have any fraud detection running, you will want to check with your provider prior to setting up an automated check out process. Automated testing will typically be picked up over a period of time. Your provider will usually want a way to identify our testing and allow it so that our tests are not picked up as fraudulent activity. Your provider can usually do this by looking for a value that is always the same, like an email or by whitelisting our test station's IP addresses. You may also need to do some things on your side to allow the test credit cards if you have any validation in place.
Remember that if you are going all the way through a check out process that it will generate a real order. If these orders are getting submitted to a database, you may want to write a script that identifies orders submitted by our test stations and have them deleted every so often so that they aren't taking up space in your database.
If orders generate an e-mail or a notice (such as a pick ticket), you may also want to delete them automatically so that there is no confusion for your employees.
Choose an item that has a large inventory so that the monitor process will not fail due to the product being out of stock.
If you're considering providing credit card information in your checkout process, here are a few things to keep in mind:
The most important thing to remember is to not use a real credit card. Credit card processors frown upon this. Doing so could result in you losing your credit card processing abilities. Some credit card companies may also have an issue with this and flag the account, preventing you from getting a future card from their company.
There are numerous credit card numbers that are specifically used for testing purposes. We always recommend that you contact your credit card processor prior to using these testing numbers to ensure they are willing to allow you to use them. Most processors allow them; however, there are a handful that will not allow any type of automated testing.
If you have any fraud detection running, you will want to check with your provider prior to setting up an automated check out process. Automated testing will typically be picked up over a period of time. Your provider will usually want a way to identify our testing and allow it so that our tests are not picked up as fraudulent activity. Your provider can usually do this by looking for a value that is always the same, like an email or by whitelisting our test station's IP addresses. You may also need to do some things on your side to allow the test credit cards if you have any validation in place.
Remember that if you are going all the way through a check out process that it will generate a real order. If these orders are getting submitted to a database, you may want to write a script that identifies orders submitted by our test stations and have them deleted every so often so that they aren't taking up space in your database.
If orders generate an e-mail or a notice (such as a pick ticket), you may also want to delete them automatically so that there is no confusion for your employees.
Choose an item that has a large inventory so that the monitor process will not fail due to the product being out of stock.
Updated on: 10/11/2022
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