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Which credit card processor allow us to retrieve payment information from their server in case if we need the payment information?

I believe my question isn't clear enough and I decided to write a detailed scenario.

We are building a new web project which allow hostel owner to list their hostel at our website. We will charge 10% as a deposit for the booking and if the guest doesn't show up, the hostel owner can look at the guest's credit card information (login into their control panel from backend) to charge the credit card with their own credit card terminal.

So now I am looking for a credit card payment processor which allow us to charge the 10% deposit, store the credit card information on their server and in case of no-show, we can retrieve the credit card information which the hostel owner will need it to charge for the no show fee.

Thank guys. Any answer is much appreciated

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What do you mean by "payment information"? Any processor provides statements, what else would you need? – littleadv Oct 3 '12 at 6:57
I added more information on the question. payment information I mean with the credit card information – simplyme Oct 4 '12 at 9:20
As I understand the question, you take credit card information from the customer, and then you want to be able to pass that information on to the hostel owner. I believe that this is ILLEGAL in most jurisdictions. If I knew you were doing this I would ABSOLUTELY NOT SEND YOU MY CREDIT CARD DETAILS, no matter how good the business you offered. – DJClayworth Oct 4 '12 at 19:09
Hi DJClayworth, it is not illegal I believe. As I know hostelworld.com is doing this. they will send all your credit card information to the hostel. That's why I am thinking about doing the same thing as they do. what do you think about that DJClayworth? – simplyme Oct 5 '12 at 5:14
Why are you holding onto the credit-card info? It sounds like the hostel will normally be accepting actual payment on-site - why can't reservations be made with the hostel directly? Are you planning on acting as a payment processor for the hostels? What's to stop you from just charging the 10% fee, then charging the remaining 90% when they actually show up? – Clockwork-Muse Oct 5 '12 at 23:06

3 Answers

up vote 0 down vote

Why aren't you taking the entire payment upfront? Most booking services I've used require 100% payment upfront.

One thing you need to keep in mind, if you keep sending noshows to hostels, they're going to stop listing on your site.

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Hi Randy, to be honest we are just a fresh company with limited resource and taking the payment upfront means a lot of work(accounting, securing payment information etc) that's why I was thinking to secure/save the payment information at the payment processor server(they have a better securing data than us). We do plan to take the payment upfront but for this early stage, we are just not able to do it now. what do you think about it Randy? – simplyme Oct 5 '12 at 5:17
Of course we are not in control if the guest will show or not that's why we let the hostel owner to charge the credit card if the guest doesn't show up. what do you think Randy? – simplyme Oct 5 '12 at 5:19
I'm not 100% sure, but doing it the way you're looking to sounds quite illegal, especially with European protection laws (I assume by the term hostel you're European :) ) Just taking the whole payment and forwarding the non deposit amount to the hostel will be the easiest of the options I would think. – Randy E Oct 7 '12 at 19:14
up vote 2 down vote

Payment processors (at least for credit cards) are prohibited from giving you more information than you supplied to them. You may be able to retrieve the information you supplied to them, but nothing additional. The only extra information you can get from them is a code that may or may not indicate the billing address or security code you supplied was incorrect. These reference codes tend to be unreliable.

Our merchant account does not allow you to see the expiration date, CVS, or complete credit card number for settled batches.

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We will supplied to the payment processor all information including credit card information. is that mean we won't have any problem retrieving the credit card information again in case if we need it? – simplyme Oct 4 '12 at 9:22
@simplyme highlly doubt that. – littleadv Oct 4 '12 at 17:43
Most probably you can not access the data once submitted. – Gary E♦ Oct 4 '12 at 19:09
up vote 0 down vote

If I understand your question correctly, here is what I suggest:

  1. If you need to re-use credit card information to bill customer for additional products and/or services, 1st you need permission to retain such information. You have to ask and have verifiable YES from them. All it takes is one or two of your customers getting pissed off and complaining. You will lose your merchant account and can get blacklisted.
  2. Authorize.net (which is used by huge number of processors) has a feature where this information can be retained for recurring charges. I've looked at it and at the time it was cheaper for me to retain that info (encrypted) in my CRM, but I had to put in place a lot of processes to make sure I am PCI compliant. Not doing so will result in loss of merchant account and possibly getting blacklisted.

Whatever you do, do not cut corners! I had to deal with cancelled merchant account before - it is not fun, it is really painful, and not worth the shortcuts.

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We will let the guest know if they do not show-up, their credit card information will be send to the hostel and will be charged for the no-show fee. is that also consider bad? www.hostelworld.com is doing that honestly.... What do you think about that Apollo? – simplyme Oct 5 '12 at 5:22
Just charge the "no-show" fee as a deposit and make it simple for yourself. Key is to make sure you very clearly state everything you are charing for and provide receipts. Chargebacks are not fun to fight. – Apollo Sinkevicius Oct 7 '12 at 18:33
yeah you are right. this is why I really need to think about it carefully for my client and my vendor. for a no-show and only charge 15%, my vendor(service provider) might doesn't like it – simplyme Oct 8 '12 at 1:54

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