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What options are available for accepting credit card payments via iPhone?

What are the options for accepting credit card payments from the iPhone app? It will be a standalone application, not a specific website for the iPhone. Can I integrate with a payment gateway, for example Authorize.net ? How about PayPal or Google Checkout? I know that on some websites it will transfer you to the PayPal website for authorization of payment - can this be done by HTTP requests, instead of forcing the user to another site (which will not be accessible from the application)? Are there any security issues with these payments from the iPhone since you cannot install the SSL certificate?

I do not want to use Apple's micro-payments, which will be available in version 3.0, as there will be many small fees, and I do not want to give 30% of Apple every time.

Is this possible, or do I need clients to create an account on my website in advance, pay by credit card, and then iPhone interact with my database to get their available balance (the amount they charge via the Internet)?

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I think 30% is well paid ...

  • No need to think about credit card fraud.
  • No need to think about secure certificates.
  • No need to think about server issues like downtime
  • No need to create a nice user interface and description of how to use
  • You don’t need a credit card, because the user just needs to fill out the iTunes password so that they can buy anywhere, everywhere

  • No need to spend a lot of time debugging and testing, the SDK is great and works like a charm if you just follow the documentation

    And you can always add another 5 dollars to cover 30% of what you are trying to sell.

    Remember that if you have a lower price, you will have much more buyers, and you can get much more profit than several buyers with a higher price.

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It is actually quite easy to charge with PayPal. It depends on the feedback you want from PayPal. For more information, see the PayPal developer site .

EDIT : I really have to explain what I mean by “feedback”.

When a user submits to the PayPal website for payment, you can submit it there using a fairly simple web form (yes, a simple <form>...</form> .) If you only have 1 product, then this form can be even static HTML.

The hard part appears after the user pays.

Option 1: Check PayPal payment manually for payment. If the user paid, then you send him an email and send everything you want to sell. The easiest way is the least amount of code. The disadvantages are that you have to do a manual check manually, and basically it's just a drain on your attention.

Option 2. Get automatic confirmation from PayPal in your application. Either receiving mail sent to the PayPal HTTP server, or actively requesting the PayPal server for confirmation after a long enough time for the transaction to complete. This means that the user receives immediate feedback after the transaction is completed. You can even automatically send him the goods! The disadvantage is that such a solution is a lot more code.

Oh, and every time I said "PayPal"? All the services I just talked about are provided by every credit card authorization gateway I have ever seen.

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