Credit-card-processing

This article provides a list of test credit card numbers for major card types including Visa, MasterCard, and American Express. These numbers are specifically for developers and merchants to test their merchant accounts without using real financial data. It is important to note these are not valid credit card numbers for actual purchases.

Businesses seeking to accept credit cards to satisfy customer demand should obtain a merchant account, which is categorized based on business type like eCommerce, retail, or mail order/telephone, influencing pricing and processing tools. eCommerce businesses require virtual terminals and payment gateways, retail uses point-of-sale terminals, and mail/telephone can utilize either. Selecting the right merchant account type is crucial for businesses to efficiently process credit card payments based on their specific sales environment.

Payment gateways are essential for merchants to securely process credit card and eCheck/ACH payments from websites, terminals, or batch uploads. These gateways encrypt transaction data and route it to card associations for authorization, providing a real-time response to the merchant. Often included with merchant accounts from service providers, payment gateways may also offer extra features like identity and address verification to enhance security.