Table of Contents
1. General Requirements
2. Parties and Costs Involved
3. Important Notes
4. Available Gateway Modules for ConfTool Pro
5. Receiving Card Payments at the Venue

Receiving Credit Card Payments

Quite often we get questions from conference organizers on how to accept credit card payments. This is a short guide on how that works, what is required and the costs involved.

If you think you have to offer card payments, e.g. because you have many international (especially American) participants, please consider the following:

• Does your organization or an affiliated organization already hold a merchant account? If not, consider the costs: for smaller events, the application fees alone may be an unacceptable burden.
• Supported cards (e.g. Mastercard, VISA, American Express) are defined by the acquirer and in your contract with your acquirer. You cannot define the cards in your ConfTool installation (see our forum: Where do I set credit cards accepted for my event?). You only enter the names of the supported credit cards in the backend of ConfTool to inform users about the supported card types.
• For payments within the EU we recommend always offering bank transfer (wire transfer). This payment method is fast (funds must arrive by the next business day within the EU) and usually free if both accounts are in Euro.
• Consider payment service providers such as PayPal, Stripe or Mollie, for which you do not have to establish your own merchant account, as alternatives for your credit card payments. There are also transaction fees of about 1.5 %–4 %, depending on card origin and pricing plan, but no setup or statement fees.
• Please note that credit card (or PayPal) payments are reversible payments. This means that the customer may cancel a payment – typically within 60 to 120 days after purchase, and in exceptional cases even later, depending on the card network and the reason for the dispute. Sometimes the merchant is even charged for such cancellations.
• Please also consider that credit card payments are sometimes subject to fraud, also for conference registrations. One example is people who register as participants with stolen card details to get an invitation and visa to the hosting country.
   

Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) is mandatory in Europe.
Under the EU Payment Services Directive (PSD2) – and equivalent rules in the UK, in practice also in Switzerland, and other countries – online card payments from European cardholders generally require two-factor authentication via 3-D Secure 2 (e.g. confirmation in the cardholder's banking app). Payments that skip this step are usually declined by the issuing bank. When you choose a gateway, make sure that it supports 3-D Secure 2 and that SCA is enabled in your merchant account – otherwise your participants may not be able to pay at all.

PCI DSS: The gateways listed below minimize your PCI DSS scope.
All payment modules of ConfTool Pro use hosted payment pages, redirects or payment fields hosted by the provider using iframes. This means that your participants enter their card details directly on the secure page of the payment service provider – card data is never entered into, transmitted through or stored by ConfTool. This considerably reduces your own obligations under the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). Please still confirm the applicable requirements with your acquirer, as they depend on your contract and your transaction volume.

Apple Pay and Google Pay
Apple Pay and Google Pay are increasingly expected by participants and are supported by several of the gateways listed below (among them PayPal, Stripe and Mollie). They are usually settled as card payments, so the fees and conditions of your existing contract normally apply. Please ask your payment service provider whether these wallets are enabled for your account.

Before you conclude a contract with an acquirer
 

• Ask for all fees involved.
• Ask for the minimum term of agreement and how and when you have to cancel the contract after the event.
• Ask how long it takes until the money is credited to your bank account. Some acquirers credit the amount only after 60 or 90 days.
• Ask whether 3-D Secure 2 is included and whether any additional fees apply for it.

We can provide modules for ConfTool Pro to link the participant registration to the payment gateways listed below. Please note that the merchant account has to be created and provided by the organizers – it is not provided by ConfTool GmbH.
 

Included in ConfTool Pro
 

Extra Module Required
 

Further Supported Payment Systems
 

University and Institutional Payment Gateways
 

The gateways above can generally also be used to receive credit card payments at the conference venue if you give your participants the option to access PCs in the registration area. However, sometimes these payments will fail, as the gateway system or bank will notice that the client is not at home (or in their home country) and will therefore block the payment for security reasons. The participant can then try to call their bank to clear the payment, but that does not always work either, depending on the bank and gateway.

There are several alternatives for so-called "card present" payments that allow participants to pay locally with their card and result in lower payment fees: either ask your acquirer how much they charge for a local point of sale (POS) terminal, or have a look at the following options that only require a smartphone and a card reader. The companies listed below have the advantage of not charging monthly fees for this service. Their systems can usually also be used for debit cards (e.g. Debit Mastercard, Visa Debit, girocard) and for wallets such as Apple Pay and Google Pay.

• Zettle by PayPal
• Square Reader
• SumUp

No responsibility is taken for the completeness and correctness of this information. Payment providers change their names, conditions and country coverage frequently – please verify the details with the provider before you conclude a contract. 
Feedback is welcome.