E-commerce credit card checking service

Hi guys,

Can anyone recommend an affordable, effective service based within the USA, that is similar to this service:

www.the3rdman.co.uk

Appreciate if anyone has used any of these services and whether or not they are worthwhile?

Thanks!!

After some careful consideration - I am going to be using Authorize.net. I'm now wondering whether an external service such as the3rdman is really necessary at all.

Any word on authorize.net, is it a good service to use?

Each gateway offers a different service. We use LinkShield with LinkPoint right now and it has been great. It actually pulls data from the First Data transaction platform (which Authorizenet.com and Verisign's Payflow use) to help give you a score on the transaction.

Necessary? It depends on your business and what you are going to be offering.

Authorize.net has good support systems, live operators, and good pricing. It's relatively secure and is an industry standard platform so it can integrate with multiple shopping carts and banks.

It's basically a "basic" merchant account, so not too many bells and whistles, but it does the job.

Keep in mind though that Authorizenet.com is not merchant account. It is an electronic payment gateway that connects you with a transaction processor. You still need a merchant account as well to accept credit cards.

Other examples of an electronic payment gateway is LinkPoint and Verisign's Payflow. They all talk to the First Data platform (transaction processor) as well as a few other transaction processors.