PayLane account vs merchant account
I keep hearing the same questions over and over again and it doesn’t look like coming to an end… What the hell is a PayLane account? What’s the difference between a PayLane account and a merchant account? How many accounts do I need to have? And so on…
So let’s make it clear once and for all. Quick and short. Here’s what it’s all about.
Short preface
First of all you need to understand one thing. PayLane is not an IPSP. So we are not like PayPal or Moneybookers. We are a PSP – Payment Service Provider. We are a kind of a proxy between financial institutions (such as VISA, MasterCard) and merchants.
So… when we are talking about your account at PayLane – in fact, we are talking about three accounts.
Merchant account
An account created by an acquirer. You’re signing the contract with an acquirer for this account. It’s more or less like a regular bank account and thanks to this account you can accept online payments, such as credit card payments.
One merchant (e.g. one company) can have several merchant accounts.
PayLane Merchant Account
An account in PayLane’s systems. One merchant account at PayLane represents one real merchant account from an acquirer. We can create such an account based on the credentials from your real merchant account.
One PayLane’s merchant can have several PayLane Merchant Accounts.
PayLane User Account
An account in PayLane’s systems, thanks to which you can access your PayLane Merchant Account. Each user should have his own user account (his own username and password).
One PayLane User Account can have access to several PayLane Merchant Accounts. One PayLane Merchant Account can have several users with access to its data.
Summary
You have at least three accounts.
But…
- You don’t need to know too much about merchant accounts. You don’t need to log in there, you don’t need to check anything there. Everything works automatically – without your participation.
- You need to know only one thing about your PayLane Merchant Account – your product/application is connected with this account (each PayLane Merchant Account has its own login/password in our API).
- You use your own PayLane User Account to log in into our panel. Thanks to this account, you’re able to see all of the data from all of your accounts.
Easy, isn’t it?
