Payment Service Providers for UK Businesses

By Jennifer Mattern on June 14th, 2007

Payment service providers, when combined with a merchant account, allow online businesses (or brick and mortar businesses with an online presence) to accept credit cards and debit cards for electronic transactions through their websites.

One such payment service provider (PSP) available to UK businesses is Axiar Payments. They provide their Axiar payment gateway and payment management system to connect a business’ front-end system (the e-commerce site visible to online shoppers) with the company’s merchant account, including built in anti-fraud solutions. Because payment service providers work in conjunction with merchant accounts while still being operated and controlled independently, a business owner keeps the ability to change their merchant account at any time without otherwise interfering with their PSP.

PSP solutions allow online business owners to completely control their online transaction process, from fully integrating with their existing e-commerce system and design to allowing users of the services to set their own fraud rule configuration and reports, as opposed to forcing rigid standards on all businesses, regardless of their needs.

Unlike other payment service providers, Axiar Payments charges customers a flat fee per transaction (as opposed to the common practice of charging a percentage of a transaction’s total), allowing online business owners to save money on payment processing fees, especially if they deal in high-ticket products and services, where paying a percentage of the total transaction would amount to a significant business cost.