Startups Stack Exchange Archive

Making online payments on behalf of my customer

My business is consulting customers which flights they should book and then doing the booking for them via an OTA (online travel agency). I would need to enter the customers credit card details on the OTA’s site for the booking.

Is there a better way, since I would need to certify my business for the credit card handling? Something like a service provider, which does the payment to the ota? Any creative ideas?

Answer 9240

I would need to enter the customers credit card details on the OTA’s site for the booking.

This is very unethical and probably illegal. Any major OTA will flag you the moment you do two or three transactions with different info.

Is there a better way

Become an “OTA,” set up a legit merchant account to take payments, profit.

That’s assuming you are serious about travel and want to service customers. If you just want to do marketing without customer service, try to see if an affiliate program might work for you.


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