Once the client SDK is initialized and the customer has submitted payment information, the SDK communicates that information to Braintree, which returns a payment method nonce
Before we get started, there are some key concepts to introduce—the Merchant (you) and the Payment Gateway.
What is a merchant account?
The merchant account is basically an online bank account that will temporarily hold your money (you are the merchant) until it is moved into your actual bank account. After a successful sale, money will be transferred into your merchant account and it will sit there for a predefined period of time, then, in most cases, it will automatically be transferred into your bank account – the one that you actually think of as your bank account where you withdraw funds and so forth. You can sort of think of your merchant account as a temporary holding tank for the money that comes in from online sales. LINK Mobility can help you get started with merchant accounts depending on the type of payments you want to accept. If you only need Mobile Subscription billing, a merchant account with LINK Mobility will be provided. If you also want to support credit card payment, you will need an external merchant account and provide LINK Mobility with your Merchant account information. LINK Mobility can assist you with acquiring a merchant account.
What is a Payment Gateway?
A Payment Gateway is the service that processes credit card or mobile phone billing transactions for you. When your customers are buying something, they enter their payment information (like credit card number) during the checkout process. The Payment Gateway is responsible for authorizing the transaction and processing the payment. In case of Card payment, if the credit card information submitted to the payment gateway matches the information on file with the credit card company and the charge is approved, the payment gateway will then transfer the money from your customers credit card into your merchant account. In the case of Phone billing, the system submits the payment request to the user's mobile operator, and if the user has sufficient funds on their subscription, the user will receive an SMS receipt that the funds have been deducted. The money from all the SMS transactions will be transferred to your bank account from LINK Mobility once a month.
The LINK Payment system is integrated with several payment gateways, and is continually expanding your options. Currently you can choose between the following: