Payments 101
If you are new to payments, or just want to understand what you need to process payments online, you are in the right place.
![mean holding a mobile phone](/content/dam/worldline/local/en-ca/images/header-images/blog-headers/img-header-secure-payments-covid19.jpg/_jcr_content/renditions/Desktop.jpeg)
What you need
1. First, you need a gateway
A payment gateway is the technology layer that links your customer’s financial institution to yours when processing a payment. Every payment made goes through a gateway. Worldline’s gateway is bank agnostic allowing it to plug into virtually any acquiring banks within North America.
2. A merchant account
I already have one: No matter which financial institution holds your account; you will be able to seamlessly connect to Worldline’s bank agnostic gateway with a gateway only account.
I need one: Worldline’s merchant accounts are transparent, with no locked contracts, flexible settlement, and simple pricing.
3. A way to accept payments
RESTful APIs + SDKs
Are you building a custom solution? Our RESTful APIs and SDKs can power your website or software to accept payments.
Checkout
Checkout is our hosted payment form. With just a few minutes and a single link, you can add Checkout to your website; no developer required.
Virtual Terminal
Created for merchants who process orders over the phone or through mail-in-orders. Worldline’s Virtual Terminal is a simple and secure online interface.
Learn more about online payments
4. Choose the card types
Which card types matter most to your business?
5. Most importantly, security
PCI-Compliant
All companies that process, store or transmit credit card information must maintain a secure environment. This includes all merchants, vendors, or software providers who handle credit card information. Worldline is PCI Level-1 (the highest level) certified service provider. Before you start processing credit card transactions online, you will have to complete a PCI DSS self-assessment questionnaire.
Tokenization
With Worldline’s Tokenization, you can send any piece of sensitive information to Worldline where it is encrypted and stored on our PCI-certified servers. Worldline then returns a token back that represents the customer’s sensitive information. Simply utilize the unique token whenever your customer makes a repeat purchase.