Payment gateway testing interview questions

A Payment Gateway is an assistance given by a web-based business application for online transactions. It accepts credit/debit card data to finish the transaction. Payment Gateway safely encodes sensitive data like card numbers, account holder name, CVV number, password, etc. They guarantee that the transaction happens in the most secure way by encoding the information of the clients. They make the entire web-based shopping experience smooth and reduce the chances of online fraud.

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Types of Payment Gateway

There are two kinds of Payment Gateways:

1. Self-Hosted Payment Gateway: The customers are redirected away automatically from the checkout page of e-commerce websites by Hosted Payment Gateway. When the customer clicks on the payment button, the application diverts the customer to the payment service organization page. Here, on this page, the customer can provide complete details and when the payment is done, it will take the customer back to the site page. For this kind of payment, a dealer id isn’t needed. A few models are PayPal Standard, Payza, 2Checkout, etc.
2. Shared/Non-Hosted Payment Gateway: The customer is redirected to the payment page arranged inside the e-commerce websites. The customization of checkout is quite easy from beginning to end. The dealers should follow all security means to keep up with the security and to defend customers’ information is the only challenge in Non hosted Payment Gateways.

Types of Payment Gateway Testing

There are different ways of payment gateway testing:

1. Functional Testing: Functional testing is expected for more up-to-date, less settled payment gateways to guarantee that the application acts as it is instructed. This type of testing guarantees that the gateway is completely functional and all its elements are working properly. This helps to check that the application page and the gateway, both are acting in the right way. For more settled installment processors, this sort of testing may not be needed. For example, it handles orders, calculations, charges, and so on precisely the way in which it should be.
2. Integration Testing: Integration testing is important while integrating with a payment gateway. As a tester, it is necessary to check that the integration of the online store is working properly with the mentioned payment gateways. As a tester checking the whole transaction stream is important:
   • Verify the placed request.
   • Verify the transaction amount is received or not.
   • Verify the transaction has to be refunded or void.
3. Performance Testing: It is important to test the website for performance. If numerous clients are attempting to finish transactions simultaneously, it is necessary that the procedure of the payment should not fail. While testing it is expected to increase the clients over a threshold level to actually take a look at the performance of the payment gateway.
4. Security Testing: Security testing should be done on any payment gateway in need to secure sensitive data. During a transaction, a client will give sensitive data like their credit card number, CVV number, and so forth It is vital to guarantee that all sensitive data is communicated after encryption and that the gateway is secure.

Things to Consider Before Buying a Gateway Package

There are generally seven things that need to be considered before buying a gateway package. These are:

1. Relevant payment flow: The scalability of the payment gateway is an important factor with the growing business. The main payment gateway provides choice to the customers for the payment:

• The website that includes the Integrated payment contains all the important information that is sent to a secured payment gateway calling an integrated API.
• Customers are redirected to a secured hosted page where they need to place all their details for payments on an embedded iFrame on site. Very little time is required by the developers to integrate.
• An escrow system is built in the e-commerce platforms to hold back the funds till the admin provides the authority to deliver them.

2. Location: In any business, location plays a great role. The websites of the payment gateway protocol need to be incorporated into the area where the business is performed. This is not always the case. If for example there are two payment providers one from the USA another from India. The business that is registered in the USA are handled by the USA payment providers and the business that are registered in India are handled by India payment providers. But in any case, if the company that is registered in India wants to work with a USA processor then it is also possible by incorporating with India. A company can both incorporate with USA and India payment providers at the same time too.

3. Payment Gateway Security: Fraud detection is a major factor from a security perspective. It is mandatory to have a feature that detects fraud. Not only for the businessman it is important to hide the payment details of customers too who visit the website to buy items online. OTP is another feature with passwords that leads to extra security while doing transactions.

4. Frequency of transactions: Average transactional amount of a website and frequency of transaction is a major factors to decide what package of payment gateway is needed for a particular website. If the package is not well chosen then the businessman will end up giving an extra amount which will lead to a company expense.

5. Multi payment mode: Every customer has their own habit and belief system of payment. Some feel comfortable in Netbanking, others use the UPI system or debit/credit card. The availability of a multi-payment mode with all facilities is necessary to attract customers for online payments.

6. Merchant Account: To receive payment through an online payment gateway there is a need for a merchant account. A merchant account is an online account that receives temporary payments through an online payment gateway when the customer buys some items. It is not the actual bank account. The amount is stored on a temporary basis on the merchant account till the date of the possibility of a return of the items from the customer. After the possibility of the given date of return exceeding the amount is transferred to the actual bank account.

7. Recurring Amount: It is a brand new feature where an automatic billing process is executed by the website on a period of interval. Customers need not worry about purchasing their items or premium accounts. It is generated automatically after expiry to continue uninterrupted services. It is mainly used on Netflix, Amazon prime, and other OTT services.

8. 24*7 Customer support: To fix any issue regarding payments customer support is necessary. Several customers face issues during payments for example amount debited but item not confirmed, the amount debited multiple times, etc. A technical support team with chat support can resolve the problems which will be beneficial for the customers.

Payment Gateway vs Payment Processor

Why Test Payment Gateway?

If we buy something from an offline market, generally cash or credit/debit cards are used during checkout to buy items by swiping the credit/debit cards through the machine. The point of sale testing determines whether the payment processing should be approved or not when it is done through credit/debit cards. Similarly, while purchasing from an online e-commerce store a system is needed that authorizes the processing of the payment and decides immediately whether to accept or decline it.

Customers want a smooth transaction process. It will be beneficial for the customers if after clicking the payment option they instantly can know whether their payment is approved or declined so that it saves time. The e-commerce company wants that the whole payment process is working properly and the customers are also satisfied while doing the online payment. This is the reason testing of payment gateway is necessary as if any problem arises while testing, the problem should be solved instantly, and customers, as well as the company of the e-commerce website, get a smooth and secure payment process.

Payment Gateway Complete Checklist

1. Build a sandbox of payment processors.
2. Check for the application response after the transaction.
3. Arrange demo credit/debit card numbers for testing.
4. Check for the message that is displayed after a successful transaction.
5. Check for the message that is displayed after an unsuccessful transaction.
6. Check for the language and currency that is relevant to the location.
7. Check for the error message in case the payment fails.
8. Redirect to the webpage after finishing the successful transaction.
9. Check that all the payment options are working properly (e.g Netbanking, UPI, credit/debit card).
10. Check for the order confirmation message in mobile number/ email id/ website after the successful transaction that the order has been placed.
11. Check for the message that is displayed after the session expires.
12. Check the payment process is using a secured channel (e.g Payment should be done on an HTTPS page rather than HTTP)
13. Check what happens if the payment gateway stops responding in the middle of the transaction.
14. Check for the entries of transactions in the database that the tester has the access to application database.
15. Check for the fraud avoidance and security settings.
16. Check that the amount is not deducted multiple times while purchasing.
17. Check that the refund amount should be the same as the transaction amount.
18. Verify the pop-up blocker is working properly during payment.

5 Critical Questions to Ask When Evaluating a Payment Gateway

1. Does the gateway support the countries and the currencies where you do business?

Some gateways only support transactions in certain countries or transactions in certain currencies, limiting e-commerce opportunities. Be sure to choose a gateway that supports the countries and currencies where you expect to do business.

Global businesses in particular may want to consider using multiple gateways which allows them to route transactions based on their geo-location. Having a second gateway also lets you conduct A/B split tests to determine which has higher acceptance rates based on key criteria relevant to your business.

2. What can a business expect in terms of the onboarding experience?

Not all gateways are created equally. Some of the things you should inquire about when considering a gateway are:

• How quickly are they able to onboard new customers? Ask them how many days on average it takes to go live and what’s involved in setting up a new merchant account.

• What kind of self-serve tools do they provide, and what capabilities do those tools have? Great customer service is a must-have, but the ability to self-serve can be a huge plus. Find out what self-serve options they offer to answer simple questions or get basic information.

• Do they have relationships with the appropriate banks? Most businesses have an existing relationship with a bank and prefer to maintain this relationship. If at some point you want to switch gateways or expand your business to new countries, you should determine whether the gateway supports your current banking relationship.

3.  How reputable is the provider and how reliable is their service? What kind of SLAs do they offer?

If your payment gateway has an outage, it can’t process transactions and you may lose customers. You should have a clear understanding of the gateway’s system reliability, SLAs, and how well they’re equipped and prepared to address service interruptions so that they can resume processing payments as quickly as possible.

4. What does their service cost? What additional fees do they impose? What are their terms of service and other contractual requirements? 

Price is obviously a consideration in any business relationship, balanced by quality of service. Fees are another important consideration in picking the right gateway. Different gateways will have different fee structures which can include monthly fees, fixed fees per transaction, variable fees based on the transaction amount, and extra fees for things like chargebacks, international payments and currency conversions.

Whether you’re considering operating with one or multiple gateways, you should get a quote from several gateways to determine estimated costs based on the gateway’s fees relative to your business.

5. Will you be able to switch providers smoothly?

In the event of a change in requirements, how easy is it to switch to a different gateway? Business requirements, gateway policies, the payment processing ecosystem, and even your customers’ preferences are all subject to change. In the event your gateway can’t keep up with your business needs, are you able to switch providers without impacting your ability to bill and collect revenues?

6. Does the gateway support the countries and the currencies where you do business?

Some gateways only support transactions in certain countries or transactions in certain currencies, limiting e-commerce opportunities. Be sure to choose a gateway that supports the countries and currencies where you expect to do business.

Global businesses in particular may want to consider using multiple gateways which allows them to route transactions based on their geo-location. Having a second gateway also lets you conduct A/B split tests to determine which has higher acceptance rates based on key criteria relevant to your business.

7. What can a business expect in terms of the onboarding experience?

Not all gateways are created equally. Some of the things you should inquire about when considering a gateway are:

• How quickly are they able to onboard new customers? Ask them how many days on average it takes to go live and what’s involved in setting up a new merchant account.
• What kind of self-serve tools do they provide, and what capabilities do those tools have? Great customer service is a must-have, but the ability to self-serve can be a huge plus. Find out what self-serve options they offer to answer simple questions or get basic information.
• Do they have relationships with the appropriate banks? Most businesses have an existing relationship with a bank and prefer to maintain this relationship. If at some point you want to switch gateways or expand your business to new countries, you should determine whether the gateway supports your current banking relationship.

8. How good is their customer support?

When dealing with credit cards and other types of payments, issues will invariably arise, both on the business’ side and on the gateway’s side. Major issues that prevent payments from going through can stop a business dead in its tracks and necessitate the immediate involvement of the gateway to provide a rapid remedy so that payments can be collected again.

Other kinds of issues can cause significant disruption such as unusually high transaction decline rates, problems with issuing refunds, duplicate transactions being created, etc. These issues can have a significant negative impact, requiring customer support and operations teams to scramble. Most importantly, gateway and payment problems affect customers who may be unsatisfied and frustrated.

When dealing with payment issues, a gateway’s customer support team usually plays a key role in identifying and resolving issues. It’s important to understand how the team will work with you to solve problems, how accessible and responsive they are, and what policies they have in place. When considering a gateway, some things to determine are:

• What kinds of support does the gateway offer? For example, do they offer phone support or at least chat function? Or are they only reached via email? Being able to reach a gateway’s support team quickly and easily has a direct impact on how quickly issues can be resolved.
• How quickly will the gateway’s customer support team respond? Waiting to get an email response is unacceptable when your payments are failing. Many gateways provide formal SLAs to delineate their required response times, which is an important thing to know.
• What options are there for tracking the status of an open issue? Similar to the above, having an easy way to find out the status of an issue eliminates delays and frustration. Also, what are the escalation options if an issue isn’t resolved in a timely or satisfactory manner? If a gateway has problems resolving an issue, having appropriate levels of escalation can be critical.

9. How does a payment gateway work with Recurly?

There are three popular options:

• Recurly customers can host their own payment form, with payment information sent to their own servers. The payment information is then sent to Recurly via our API. This is the easiest option in terms of collecting payment information, but the most difficult in terms of meeting PCI-compliance requirements. Unless you’re prepared to expend the time and resources to meet those very strict standards for PCI compliance, this option is not the best choice.

• Payment form redirect. This option lets you take payment information by redirecting your customers to a payment page hosted by Recurly. This is a far more secure option, although the page or form may not be fully customizable.

• Payment form on your site that sends payment information directly to a secure payment gateway. With this option, your servers aren’t actually receiving any sensitive financial information as it’s being submitted directly to the payment gateway. Not only are PCI compliance requirements minimized, you’re able to control the checkout experience. Recurly offers this option through Recurly.js.

10. Does the payment gateway support new payment methods?

The world of payments is fast-moving, particularly recently, with new payment methods continually coming to the fore. When selecting a payment gateway, you should consider if the gateway supports all the payment methods you need.

FAQ

How do you performance test a payment gateway?

• Check if all the labels and boxes are visible.
• Verify the payment gateway company logo or name.
• Check if the credit card number is masked or not.
• Verify that all the payment options are visible.
• Check if the color scheme matches the specifications.

How does a payment gateway work step by step?

1. Set up payment processor sandbox.
2. Gather test credit card numbers that would be used for testing different credit cards. …
3. Verify the behavior of the application when a transaction is successful.

What API is used for payment gateway?