What software pieces do I need to accept cards on line?

Have long time merchant status but have been processing manually.

[HeyJim]

Few years ago I needed to do recurring payments and went to 2CO because of all the conflicting and self-serving information on the net. I just knew I was out of my league trying to figure all of this out so I took the "easy way" out with 2CO. I, too, had trouble with their lack of support but at least they never took any of my money.

Now I'm back in a situation again where I need to offer a recurring payment option. Doing this manually isn't practical. Judging from the fact that 2CO is still having serious problems they're no longer an option for me.

So, I signed up for PayPal (better rates than my brick and mortar merchant account) and then discovered that customers would have to be PP members to use the PP subscription service (recurring payments). Still a nice *option* to offer but that membership fact eliminated PP as being my sole cc processor.

So, it looks like I'm stuck trying to figure out how to put together all of the pieces of this online authorization stuff. I don't mind spending a few hundred dollars getting this up and running but I don't want to be throwing money away either. So...

a. What am I looking for? I can install a simple shopping cart - been there / done that - but at this point don't have a clue as to how to integrate cc processing. Can most carts handle recurring payments or have I just eliminated most carts? Or, are recurring payments not a cart issue? Am I going to need some heavy programming skills to integrate these things?
b. And, what "things" do I really need beyond the cart? Do I have to purchase separately a "gateway" and be paying someone for that each month plus another company to do the processing?

Obviously, any guidance greatly appreciated. I don't want to spend weeks and have lots of stress putting something together just because I'm somewhat challenged in this area.

Thanks.

[The_Foz]

HeyJim-check out Bank of America's 'Ecommerce' site. I use them & they have a recurring statement thingee, like for subscription payments, etc.
Foz.

[The_Foz]

Whoops! Should have checked out your profile before I opened my mouth! Since you live in the UK, the Bank of America probably won't do you much good.
Sorry, Foz.

[chodges84]

Worldpay has a recurring payment option called 'Futurepay'. I'm a W/P customer myself, but haven't used this aspect of it as I have no need to.

You could also try Protx, as they link to your current Merchant account, and just act as a Gateway. The money is transferred stright to your account (i think), where as with Worldpay they pay your remittance weekly.

Fee wise Worldpay is £305 including VAT initially, and then on the anviserviry of that you pay £160 every year.

I expect most carts can handle recurring payments, although you may need to send some additional variables to the C/C processing server.

Just my 2 cents though (although being british it's pennies, (hopefully never euros though))

[HeyJim]

Hmmm. Starting to understand more clearly what I'm looking for.
By the way, I'm not from the UK. USA.

Anyone else have any info on how to bypass unnecessary expense?

Thanks.

[JonR28]

Authorize.net has recurring billing too. It would be very complicated to set up with no programming experience but it would be the most "professional" option.