Protx are an online payment gateway or payment service provider (PSP). We provide a secure link between a website and a bank and carry sensitive information to and from those sources.

In order to be able to take payments online you must have an Internet Merchant Number that can be provided to us through your Protx online application. When Protx capture credit card details from your shoppers, that information will then be forwarded to the bank for verification and authorisation, using your Internet Merchant Number as a unique identifier.

Without an Internet Merchant Number, Protx would not be able to gain authorisation on card details and therefore all transactions would fail. This is why you require an Internet Merchant Number with one of the banks we are affiliated with.

For more information about setting up a merchant account click here.
For information on what banks we support and how to contact them click here.

In order to get an Internet Merchant number you will need to contact one of the acquiring banks that we support and request to trade online via Protx.

They will assess you as a business and enter you into an Internet Merchant agreement. You will be provided with an Internet Merchant Number which you will need to provide Protx when you register with us online.

All the banks offer different rates and we advise you to shop around to find the best deal.

For more Information about setting up a merchant account click here.

What do Protx do for me?

Protx act as your payment gateway or payment processor. It is important to distinguish the role Protx plays from the role of your acquiring bank. Protx provide the secure link between your website and your bank of choice and pass information between the two, including results on authorisations and security checks performed by your bank.

•   Protx provide a secure link between your website and your bank.
  
•   We process your transactions using your Internet Merchant Number with your acquiring   bank.
  
•   We report on the bank's authorisation responses.
  

Protx also provide additional features to make your life as a merchant easier and to help avoid fraud:

•   Protx provide an VSP Admin area where you can view information about your transactions   and will show a list of transactions over a period of a selected month.
  
•   Protx provide and display security results both carried out by your bank and by our
    3rd Man service, which is a fraud checking agency.
  
•   You will also have extra fraud options available through Protx in the form of AVS & CV2   and 3D Secure.
  

Protx provide reporting functions to allow you to reconcile your accounts and to view historical account information such as:

•   Transactions sent to your bank to settle into your account on a daily, weekly and   monthly basis.
  
•   Transactions processed via your Protx account, historical records of which are available   to you for a 13 month period.
  

What does my Acquiring Bank do for me?

•   They provide you with the ability to process transactions online.
  
•   They provide you with an Internet Merchant Account.
  
•   They actively gain authorisation on your shopper's card details or decline them.
  
•   They perform security checks on your Shopper's card details.
  
•   They retrieve funds from your shopper's accounts and place them into your bank   account.
  
•   They debit your account if you perform a refund on a shopper's card.
  
•   They provide chargebacks when a card has been used fraudulently.
  

It is important that you provide the correct Internet Merchant Number in your Protx application or the process will be dramatically lengthened. To avoid delays in the processing of your application some key points to remember are:

•   The Merchant Number you provide is for Internet trading, NOT for a shop terminal or a   PDQ machine.
  
  
•   The Internet Merchant Number is an Ecommerce or MOTO (Mail Order Telephone Order)   depending on the Protx service you plan to use - be it processing through a website or   with our VSP Terminal.
  
  
•   The Internet Merchant Number should be set up for use with Protx and not another   payment gateway.
  
  
•   The Internet Merchant Number is not a head office/chain Merchant Number. (This usually   occurs with Lloyds TSB Cardnet and Bank of Scotland merchants)
  
  
•   The Internet Merchant Number is registered against a trading name. This trading name   needs to be supplied to us accurately.
  

When Protx receive your online application for a Protx account there are several stages involved in the set up process. Our technical support team will create a 'Test account' and provide you with notification and documentation which will allow you to start setting up your website.

Protx need to contact your acquiring bank for confirmation of your merchant details and to allocate our Terminal Id's to your Internet Merchant Number.

Protx will wait for confirmation from your Acquiring Bank. This can take between 3 to 5 working days. This response will either:

•   Confirm the Internet Merchant details are correct and ready for use with Protx   and also confirm the allocation of our Terminal ID's.

    Or

•   Decline the Merchant details as being incorrectly set up for use with Protx and   therefore decline the allocation of Terminal ID's. This means your Protx account   cannot be processed any further until the issue causing the decline has been   resolved by you and your bank.

NB: You will not be able to go 'Live' until confirmation has been received from your bank.

There are various reasons why merchant details and TID allocation maybe declined:

•   The internet Merchant Number is not an Internet Merchant Number.
  
•   The internet Merchant Number is set up for use with another payment gateway and not   Protx.
  
•   The bank details provided are incorrect.
  
•   The trading name provided to Protx does not match that registered on the bank's   records.
  
•   The Internet Merchant Number simply does not exist on the bank's records.
  
•   Currencies have been selected on your application that have not been agreed between   yourselves and your acquiring bank.
  

If your Internet Merchant Number is not set up on the Bank's systems for use with Protx then the bank will reject confirmation when we approach them. Our support team will then email you to inform you of the problem. You will be required to resolve the issue with your bank and respond to our support team via email when a resolution is found.

The likely causes of this rejection are:

•   Supplying a head office Internet Merchant Number.
  
•   Supplying an Internet Merchant Number not set up for internet use.
  
•   Supplying an Internet Merchant Number that is set up with another payment gateway.
  

They will either assign your Merchant Number to Protx, or provide you with a New Internet Merchant Number. In both cases you will need to inform us of the outcome as the banks will not update us.

A Terminal ID (TID) is a unique identifier that recognises Protx as your PSP. It is a series of numbers that is used to process your transactions and is passed with every transaction that you process through Protx.

TID's will be assigned to all Internet Merchant Numbers and must be set up at the bank's end in order to process successful orders.

If you wish to change an Internet Merchant Number that you have registered on your Protx account, you must send an email to our Merchant Number Change Team from the Primary / Billing contact email address that is registered on the Protx account and provide us with the following:

• The Protx VSP Vendor name of the account to be changed.



• The existing Merchant number registered on the Protx account and the New Merchant Number you wish us to apply and state:
  
  
  • If the New Internet Merchant Number is to replace the existing merchant number on the account.
    NB: if it is a Natwest Merchant Number, you must provide the associated 6 digit Natwest Company Number.
  
  
  
  • If it is an addition to the account , you will need to state the associated Acquirer, the Currency, the Account Type (Ecommerce, Moto or CA) and the Bank account details of where the funds are being transferred to.

Once we have all the information we need from you to apply the change, we will contact the Merchant Acquirer of the Merchant Number given and ask them to validate the data and assign our Terminal I'D's.

This process can take upto 5 working days for the banks to respond.

• If the banks inform us that all is correct and set up, we can proceed to amend your Protx account and apply for 3D Secure.



• If the banks decline to assign our TID's, we will inform you why and what you need to do to correct the issue.

IMPORTANT NOTE:

• The Merchant number change process is not a simple amendment and can take a minimum of 7 working days to complete.



• Please DO NOT close your existing merchant number or settlement bank account. We recommend that you keep your old merchant number account open for at least 30 days or at least until we have informed you that the changes was successfully completed. Closing your old account too soon will mean transactions will not be processed and those that were may not be settled. Protx have no control over this and needs to be managed by you.



• If you have 3D Secure applied to your existing Merchant Number, this will be removed from your Protx account as soon as we apply the New Merchant Number, as it is Merchant Number specific.
  
  Protx will request 3D Secure be set up with your new Merchant Number but this takes the banks 14 working days to set up with Visa & MasterCard. We can only apply for 3DSecure once the banks have confirmed the merchant number is correct and set up at their end and we can only add 3D Secure to your Protx account when confirmation is received from Visa & Mastercard via your acquiring bank. So your merchant number will be changed before 3DSecure is set up.
  
  N.B: If you are changing to a BMS Merchant Number, you will need to apply directly to BMS for 3D Secure to be set up and you will need to forward the setup details as soon as the bank has provided them to you.

Standard Internet Merchant Numbers

The banks will provide standard Internet Merchant agreements to all online Vendors, allowing them to process standard credit and debit card transactions online.


MOTO

MOTO stands for 'Mail Order Telephone Orders'. This is specifically for card details that are given over the telephone by the shopper to the Vendor.

These transactions can be processed online, but because they are processed differently by the banks and they are charged at a different rate, Protx flag all these transaction as MOTO. They will not be accepted by the bank via the ecommerce channel. MOTO transactions can be processed using our VSP Terminal service and by our VSP Direct service.


Direct Refunds

Direct Refunds allow vendors to refund any card for any amount. Normally you cannot refund more than the original amount of the original transaction that was placed via Protx.

For a more in depth view, please click here


Continuous Authority

This Internet Merchant Number is for Vendors that run subscription services and regularly take funds from a shopper's card, this is otherwise known as Recurring billing.

For a more in depth view, please click here

Each bank has its own format for Internet Merchant Numbers. Protx require the correct format for each bank. When supplying an Internet Merchant Number in our online application form, we will expect certain details to be unique depending on the bank you have selected. Internet Merchant Numbers, for example, should be a certain length and may have a prefix or suffix.

If you require contact information for the banks we support please click here.

N.B: All Internet Merchant Numbers will be numeric and will not contain alpha characters or any other symbols/characters.

The type of cards that you can accept with your Internet Merchant Number is dictated by the acquiring banks in your Merchant Agreement. If you are uncertain about a particular card type and can't remember if it has been set up with your acquiring bank then it is very important that you contact them for clarification. We can add card types for processing to your account at any time.

For a more in depth view on Cards, please click here.

NB: Pease do not register with Protx for card types that are not set up on your Internet Merchant Number