Anatomy of a "Real-Time" Credit Card Transaction
Six Steps of a Secure Internet Credit Card Purchase
1. Shopping on the Internet
The consumer selects an item to purchase on the Internet.
2. Initiating the Transaction
After entering shipping and credit card information, the consumer is presented with a summary of the item, price, and billing information.
The payment information is secured with industrial strength encryption and forwarded with the order form to the merchant's CyberCash CashRegister.
3. CashRegister Picks up Merchant Information
The merchant's identification information is automatically added to the encrypted payment request.
4. Through the CyberCash Firewall to the Bank
Still encrypted, the payment request is forwarded over the Internet and is received through a secure firewall by the CyberCash CashRegister server.
CyberCash instantaneously passes the payment request to the merchant's financial institution, which zips it on to the consumer's credit card bank to approve or decline payment authorization.
5. Bank Sends Approval
The consumer's credit card bank sends its response back through the merchant's financial institution to the merchant's CashRegister.
The shopper also receives confirmation of credit card approval.
The entire authorization process takes under 20 seconds.
6. Transaction is Completed and Captured
The merchant delivers the item to the shopper.
The merchant requests financial settlement, or "capture", of the transaction through the CashRegister server.
Funds are transferred to the merchant's account by its financial institution.
Please note: this copyright notice does not apply to text supplied by CyberCash.
CyberCash, CyberCoin, PayNow and the CyberCash logo are trademarks of
CyberCash, Inc.