What does CCavenue do?
CCAvenue provides complete, simple and secure online payment gateway services and e-business solutions to Indian websites, with real time credit card and Net Banking transaction validation. This enables the websites to transact and accept payments online and in real time.

What are the types of web / integration interfaces offered by CCAvenue? Does my customer get to see pages which have the look and feel of my website?
CCAvenue offers you (the Sub Merchant) two interfaces to choose from: Variable Amount Interface and Shopping Cart Interface. These interfaces can be seamlessly integrated with your Site.
a) Variable Amount Interface : Use this interface if you have already developed your shopping cart and you need CCAvenue.com exclusively for final amount authorization. The customer finishes shopping on your site; and you just forward the final amount to the CCAvenue 'secure server final payment check out' page. Your customer then enters his/her credit card or Net Banking selection and shipping information to complete the sale. The full transaction flow from your site to the CCAvenue site to the payment gateway is explained in detail through the following formats:- flash, demolink , livelink) & flowchart (below)

b) Shopping Cart Interface :If you have not yet developed a shopping cart for your website or you do not want to spend your precious resources on designing one, then this interface is just right for you. Use the readymade Shopping cart provided by CCAvenue; which can be customised to match the look and feel of your site. At the top of the shopping cart, simply put up your industry standard 468 x 68 banner, customize the background colour to match that of your website, add the links and give it a total look and feel of continuity of your site. On your site, list your product or services and insert an 'Add To Cart' button next to this list. CCAvenue provides these buttons along with snippets of HTML code. Once your customer clicks on the 'Add to Cart' button, he is seamlessly taken to your customised Shopping Cart hosted on CCAvenue's secure server. Here he has the option of paying up and finishing the transaction OR adding more items from your site. Customers can select products for purchase and add them to a virtual "Shopping Cart" on CCAvenue secure server. When he has finished shopping, the customer clicks the 'Checkout' button, enters his/her credit card and shipping information to complete the sale. The full transaction flow from your site to the CCAvenue site to the payment gateway is explained in detail through the following formats:- flash, demolink,livelink & flowchart (below).

• Which credit cards and Net Banking facilities can my customers use to purchase on my web site? Does CCAvenue offer a fail-safe back-up redundancy for Visa & MasterCard processing?
• Any MASTERCARD, VISA, JCB, Diners Club, Citibank E-cards and AMERICAN EXPRESS credit cards issued anywhere in the world. HDFC Bank, Citibank, Centurion Bank, ICICI Infinity, IDBI and UTI Bank net banking clients can now also pay you online. CCAvenue will also shortly offer Federal Bank and Global Trust Bank net banking facilities as a debit payment option, for your customers. CCAvenue is the worlds' first and only payment gateway solutions provider to offer such a wide bouquet of debit options, through the online net banking interface. Visa & MasterCard being the more popular online cards, CCAvenue ensures that at any given time there is always at least one gateway available to process them. Integrating with two distinctly separate banks for simultaneously processing these credit cards transactions i.e. Citibank N.A. and ICICI Bank Ltd, ensures such an availability. This is a feature not available with any payment gateway solution provider elsewhere in the asian region.

What does CCAvenue facilities cost me? Are there any hidden charges?
Unlike financial institutions that demand huge upfront fees and lien deposits CCAvenue's charges are affordable for all types of business.

For Sub-Merchants with an established e-commerce presence or those confident of a huge volume we recommend our premium account. This is available for a one-time setup fee of Rs. 20,000 (to be paid at the time of registering) and an annual software upgradation charge of Rs 2400/- (at the begining of every financial year 01 April subsequently).

The transaction discount rate on a credit card transaction is 5% per transaction, with no minimum or maximum transaction value or monthly guaranteed volume. (Which means that for each transaction of Rs 100/- of gross value processed on your behalf by CCAvenue, you will receive Rs 95/- as payment in hand)

The transaction discount rate for a net-banking debit transaction is 4% per transaction, with no minimum or maximum transaction value or monthly guaranteed volume. (Which means that for each transaction of Rs 100/- of gross value processed on your behalf by CCAvenue, you will receive Rs 96/- as payment in hand)

For Sub-Merchants with a new e-commerce presence or those just "testing the waters" we recommend our economy account. This is available for a one-time setup fee of Rs. 5,000 (to be paid at the time of registering) and an annual software upgradation charge of Rs 1,200/- (at the beginning of every financial year 01 April subsequently).

The transaction discount rate on a credit card transaction is 7% per transaction, with no minimum or maximum transaction value or monthly guaranteed volume. (Which means that for each transaction of Rs 100/- of gross value processed on your behalf by CCAvenue, you will receive Rs 93/- as payment in hand)

The transaction discount rate for a net-banking debit transaction is 4% per transaction, with no minimum or maximum transaction value or monthly guaranteed volume. (Which means that for each transaction of Rs 100/- of gross value processed on your behalf by CCAvenue, you will receive Rs 96/- as payment in hand)

Is it possible to sell my product and service in more than one currency? How is the charge reflected in my customers' credit card statement? Does CCAvenue issue me a F.I.R.C (Foreign Inward Remittance Certificate) for all my overseas sales?
You may represent your product pricing in any number of currencies. At the end of the transaction when your client has to checkout to the CCAvenue payment option page, we require that the payment amount is in INR equivalent only. This is because we do not process the final payment in any other currency but INR as we are subject to such RBI rules and Regulations. You need not create a different set of shopping cart links.

Example:
Let us assume you are keen to sell a product at US$ 10/- to a prospective US customer and feel that it is an attractive price for your product. So you represent US$ 10 on your web page. When the customer completes his shopping and the data of your shopping cart is to be sent to the CCavenue pay page you need to ensure that you have converted this amount to INR.
What benchmark to use? No genius in the world can predict at what exchange rate (INR >< US$) rate the end customer is going to get his credit card bill as this fluctuates by the minute. So to play safe ensure that no matter what happens the end customer should not see any amount over US$ 10/- on his credit card billing statement.

How does one do this?
Lets say the US$ rate today for INR is INR 48.50 = US$ 1. You should take a benchmark of INR 48.0 = US$ 1. Which means that even if the clients' bank is actually using the exchange rate INR is INR 48.50 = US$ 1 the client will only be billed US$ 9.89 / and not the US$ 10/- which he agreed to pay you. (This is arrived at by US$ 10 x 48.0 = INR 480 / 48.5 = 9.89)

Off course you will have to constantly monitor that INR >< US$ rate of exchange and ensure that at any given time the difference parameter is maintained. However one great factor which works in your favor constantly is the fact that the US$ is constantly appreciating against the INR so even if you do not change or monitor your differential factor for small changes you will still land up charging the customer a little lesser in US$ than that he was shown the bill for. However you must also ensure that you do not under price yourself on the exchange rate too much and do upwardly revise your INR calculation if there is a huge jump in the exchange rates, so that this jump can add to your profitability.

Therefore when you throw the final amount of your shopping cart onto the CCavenue pay page, you need to convert this amount at a fixed rate into INR and throw the INR amount only. Your buyer from outside India will see the INR amount on this CCAvenue page (which offers multiple payment options). He will also be told that if he wants to view this INR amount in his local currency he could also use the live CCAvenue currency converter link. This would show him the approximate amount in his local currency, which would be billed to his credit card statement at the time of that precise particular transaction. Your customer will be billed in his local currency in his card statement.

RBI insists that Merchants in India settle transactions in INR only and the respective banks give a foreign exchange inward remittance certificate (F.I.R.C.), which we (CCAvenue) then pass on to you (Our Sub Merchant). This takes care of the Income Tax part of things, to enable you to claim exports benefits under section 80 HH of the Income Tax Act.

CCAvenue will issue you a FIRC (Foreign Inward Remittance Certificate) for all overseas transactions done. This will be issued on a quarterly basis. A small documentation fee may be levied.

What is a credit card chargeback? What is CCAvenue's credit card chargeback policy?
A refund that is forced by a credit cardholder's credit card company is known as charge back. This occurs when a cardholder decides to formally dispute a charge on his/her credit card bill, usually because someone else fraudulently used that card number.
Credit Cards Permit Chargebacks As per VISA & MASTERCARD rules any online transaction can/may also be revoked or refuted by a customer to a Sub Merchant via his card-issuing bank for the following reasons. This is allowable for up to 6 months from date of the transaction.
a) The Sub Merchant has not shipped the goods or delivered the promised service.
b) The Sub Merchant has taken back the goods /cancelled the services but not yet issued a refund on the credit card.
c) The cardholder's credit card has been fraudulently used by someone else to procure goods and services - without knowledge or prior agreement of the cardholder.
CCAvenue's payment gateway service provider, ICICI Bank and Citibank, have state-of-the-art fraud screening capabilities to reduce risks. However, if any chargeback is reported by the cardholder, you (sub-merchant) will be liable to pay the amount back to CCAvenue or it will be adjusted with the current balance of your account with CCAvenue; or you will be liable to refund back the disputed amount back to CCAvenue. Please note that this practice is universal and is followed by all payment gateway service providers the world over. CCAvenue has also an in-house team, which will screen all the transactions. Please see the section on fraud reduction tips for more information.

In cases which prima facie look fraudulent, the same will be referred back to payment gateway for a further thorough authorization and if it is still authorized then CCAvenue will forward the transaction to the Sub Merchant so as to enable him/her to use his/her judgment whether or not he wants to execute the order or not. The chargeback disputes are normally less than 1% of the total transactions in a year.

a) Sub Merchant should keep complete proof of goods being shipped. This could be in the form of a Courier consignment note or Receipt from the final consignee.
c) The Sub Merchant can prove that the customer was informed in advance about refunds / return of goods for replacement faulty goods.

A CHARGEBACK CAN ONLY BE REVERSED IF THE CREDIT CARD HOLDER FORMALLY INFORMS HIS/HER BANK OR CREDIT CARD ISSUING INSTITUTION THAT HE/SHE WILL ACCEPT THE DISPUTED CHARGE.

Fraudulent use of a credit card on the Internet is always at the risk of the Sub Merchant.
Sub Merchants should keep an internal benchmark for the level of transaction for which he will take a risk, without asking for additional documentation from a customer.
Example: ABC Shops has internally set a per transaction limit of Rs 30,500/-. Which means that up to Rs 30,500/-, ABC Shops will process an order without asking the customer to provide additional proof. If the transaction amount is more than the internal benchmark of Rs. 30,500/- then poof is required for:
a) That this customer owns the credit card he is using.
b) He is who he says he is. (ID)
So ABC Shops asks any customer who does a transaction over Rs 30,500 to send by fax the following:-
a) The last statement he received from the credit card company, which clearly shows his credit card billing address as well as the credit card number. b) A copy of his driving license / national identity card / PAN No. / Passport which proves he is the person who has placed the order. When ABC Shops has these documents, then they can go ahead with the customer without any doubts knowing full well that no fraudulent usage is taking place of the credit card being used for the purchase of their goods or service.