If it's your first time working with our gateway or reading through our docs, this page is will answer most of your questions. Understanding online payment and all processes can get complicated. But that's not gonna be the case if you work with a smart payment gateway. Let's go through the basics first.

The Role of Datatrans

Datatrans focuses on the technical processing of payments, including hosting smart payment forms and correctly routing payment information. We make sure payment processes are simplified and that the complex part of online payments is handled by us. We remain in charge of linking new acquiring protocols, handling 3D-Secure 2 or PSD2 concerns, or further online payment related topics.

As we only focus on the technical integration, we are never involved in the money flow - Other firms specialized in that field take over: Acquirers (card payments) and financial partners (such as PayPal, Klarna, Twint, and others). Once we successfully validated the provided payment information on our payment forms, we route the payment information to your desired financial partner who then approves or declines a transaction. Once we have a clear answer from them, we route back the proper response to you.

Financial Partners and Datatrans

Financial partners (including acquirers for card payments) are responsible for debiting the payments from your customers and also for paying out the total of your transactions to your bank account. Some of the financial partners also have their own payment gateway or integration. So, why would someone choose a solution that separates the money flow from the technical solution, you may ask?

The main benefit of separating the money flow from the data flow - thus remaining acquirer-agnostic for card payments - is that you can choose which configuration you wish to use for specific markets. Moreover, their own gateways only allow you to use one specific financial platform per integration. Switching to a new card acquirer also means that your developers will be busy integrating a new payment gateway. In other words, you will most likely need one integration per payment method.

With Datatrans you always have the option to switch from one card acquirer to another. One single integration is required for all your payment methods and processes. You can focus on what you do best.

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Adding a new acquirer for card payments takes time

Getting approval by an acquirer to accept card payments takes time. This is mainly linked to the fact that opening new acquiring contracts is subject to KYC and AML processes. If you already have all the necessary acquiring contracts ready and you wish to switch to Datatrans with a compatible acquirer, we will make sure to speed up the process.

Payouts

The payouts of your transactions are always performed by your financial partners and never by Datatrans. Your transactions will usually be grouped and transferred to your bank account. Usually, payouts are done once or twice a month. Depending on the financial partner and your agreement, the schedule of your payouts may be changed to happen more frequently.

Going Live with Datatrans

A production account will be required to accept real payments from your customers through Datatrans. To open your production account, you will have to sign a contract with us. You may apply for a production account by applying online or contact us to have our sales department answer your questions.

Please be aware that you will also require at least one contract with a financial partner (or acquirer for card payments) to go live. In case you fail to provide such a contract, we will not be able to activate your account in our production environment.

Migrating existing card information

We support the migration of your existing saved customers’ card information. We have previously migrated card information from Stripe, Wirecard, Worldline and others. If you already have an operating business and wish to migrate existing card data to our solutions, please get in touch with us. Card migrations are only available to merchants processing at least 10,000 card transactions per month.

The migration process usually involves the following four steps to avoid missing card information or a disruption in your payment processes:

• You link our solutions and start registering new users and processing their recurring payments via Datatrans. Until the card migration is completed, existing users are still debited via your old payment service provider.
• We request access to your saved card details. This will require your confirmation. This step may take some time - usually a few business days or a few weeks at most.
• We receive your existing cards and start adding them to your account. Once the cards have been added to our platform, we will send you a matching file containing at least the old token and our new token (alias).
• Finally, you can start migrating existing users to Datatrans for their recurring payments. Your customers won’t notice a change.

While this is the preferred approach for migrating card information seamlessly, you can also choose to let your customers register their cards again.

Next Steps

Now that you understand the basics of our payment gateway, you may next check the section PAYMENTS to discover possible payment flows or go straight to INTEGRATIONS to see the payment forms and endpoints you can use for your applications.