How to take credit card payments from user in iPhone applications? - iphone

I am new to credit card payment applications, I am developing an iPhone application which requires to take credit card payments from the user. In this application I am just providing a coupon to the user and if the user uses the coupon I just want to collect $1 from the user's credit card.
I have read In App Purchase guide but this doesn't suit for this requirement it seems since my coupons are just builtin-App products.
can anyone provide other method which best suits for my requirement or if IAPP suits for my requirement, how to approach.
some help will be appreciated.

I don't know how you are planning to distribute your app. Apple says it will reject almost any app that takes payments via anything other than in-App purchase. There may be some narrow exceptions, but you should take a very careful look at part 11 of their approval guidelines (from the link).

The easiest way is to implement in App purchase for every coupon and the in app purchase just unlocks the content(which must be stored in the application or downloaded from your server).
super easy.
But I would recommend you to implement a feature like buying credits for the app.
You can create an in App Purchase for let's say one (1$) 3, 3$) and so on. This can be send to your server(of course you need to make the billing management on your own) and the iPhone User can identify himself by an User Name and an Password to get access o their Credits and redeem them instantly in the App. In this Situation you could even extend your service by adding PayPal Payment(in an WebView inside the Application).
I Hope this helps. Good Luck.

Related

in app purchase not using storekit

I want to make an application that make the users able to order food through my application and they can pay using their credit card or any other payment method. and I don't want apple to take 30% of the transaction.
what methods are available to do this, and is this illegal for Apple?
Thanks
You can't use storekit to do this, Apple will reject it immediately (violates 11.3 in the agreement). If you REALLY want to do that, you have two options:
1.) Write a web app instead of a native iOS app.
2.) Do something like what Square is doing where they process credit card payments through their own service.
This link leads me to believe that if you're not purchasing content or additional application features, any purchases the user makes are not subject to royalties collectable by Apple.
That said, you'll have to find some service (presumably a web service, like Amazon FPS) that will process the food payments in a way that works for your business process.

Storing Credit Card details in the iPhone App

We develop iPhone App for sale some things
We want to help users buy quickly ("in 1 touch")
I found similar questions but they are all about websites
May you answer - Is this legal to save details of CC (number, name, exp date - without CVC code, which user have to enter on the payment page) inside the App on the device ?
All data stored only inside App
From our side it looks like:
user save data in his profile and use this info for quick filling of payment form inside our App.
If user loses his device - it's his fault :) or am I wrong?
It is legal to store credit card data in your application. However, your application needs to be PCI compliant. Read up on this here: https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/. There are hefty fines that VISA/Mastercard can leverage if a fraud breach occurs due to your software, up to hundereds of thousands of dollars per transgression. This isn't the kind of thing to mess with lightly.
DJ Quimby has it right (his answer is in this feed). Once you complete the development of a mobile app that allows for credit card payments you'll need a third party to perform security assessment and determine whether you have satisfactorily met the Payment Card Industry (PCI) payment Application Data Security Standard (PA-DSS) version 1.2 related to the protection of cardholder data. If you're storing the full credit card number and/or expiration date in your app, it will not pass this PCI assessment. Without passing the assessment your app will be rejected by the iTunes app store.
Yes, it's legal.
No, it's probably not something your merchant bank will be a fan of.
No, it's not a good idea at all.
No, Apple won't approve your app.
I am guessing that you plan on developing your own in App payment system. This is forbidden by Apple. You must use the storeKit framework. Apple already stores the credit card info on their side so you have one less problem to think about :)

Different options to make payments inside an Application

I am exploring options which would enable the user to make payments from within the Application.Right now i am aware of 2 options through which a user can make payments from within the App.
1 In-App Purchase (Already implemented).
2 Pay Pal (Exploring).
So is there any other way to implement purchases. Any links , APIs ,advices will be welcomed...
PS: I intend to release this app on US App Store.
Cheers.
I can tell you, that for an in-app purchases PayPal is most definitely a no go, but you will find this out by yourself :)
Apple will only accept payment for such activities through in app purchases, no other methods of payment are allowed.
There is a workaround for these type of purchases (especially PayPal); do them not within your app but from mobile Safari. That will work and is (for now) an accepted method used by more applications.
In app purchase is the only (reliable) way to do 'feature purchasing' and if you want to be in the App Store. If you want to accept donations, you can use in app purchase or PayPal in a UIWebView. There really isn't a whole lot of choice for it on the iPhone.
The reality of the situation is that you are going to want to use in app purchase. Users are going to be more willing to pay if they can just press a button and have it show up on their bill. If you use any other service, they're going to have to go get their credit card, etc... It'll just be ugly.
Another alternative is accepting funds through SMS. This may only be appropriate for donations to charities/non-profits. There are services for supporting SMS giving such as mGive (http://www.mgive.com/), Give on the Go (http://www.giveonthego.com/), or giveByCell (http://www.givebycell.com/).

Is it possible to publish application in AppStore which will accept credit card payments?

My company provides eCommerce solution for our customers. We host their web site where their customers buy some stuff. Our eCommerce solution takes their credit card information and processes it via payment gateway.
Now we want to create iPhone app for our customers somewhat duplicating functionality of their web sites. Similar to what Amazon.com app does. Provide native interface to browse items and then have ability to purchase them (again, I think Amazon.com application does that).
But I was reading stories how Apple usually rejects such applications if product if not going via in-App purchases. Or is it only for digital stuff?
Any thoughts on how likely such app will be rejected or approved?
Many apps have been approved and many apps have been rejected. I don't believe it is limited to just digital stuff.
I believe its just depends who reviews your application. It doesn't seem like there is an official rule about it. I think if there is a good reason for credit cards instead of an in-app purchase then your more likely to pass apple's approval process.
But your guaranteed way of getting it approved is to make everything an in-app purchase, so if you can use in-app purchase then do it.
"AT&T myWireless" app does exactly what you want.
Besides there are a lot of Credit Card Processing apps in the AppStore.
So in case your app is not approved you can always point out AT&T's app
and say "Hey, why can they do that and I don't??"
and they can always reply... or not actually
If the mobile solution is generic for so many mobile platforms like J2ME, Android, iPhone etc, then it does not make sense to change the payment mechanism for one platform alone. So InApp purchase may not be an option for most of the cases. I believe Apple understands it and approves the apps accordingly.

AppStore approval of a free application with paid content

We have developed an application that allows a user to download audio content. The use of application itself is free, but we charge for the content. In our current business model, we accept payments using premium-rated SMS (which increases the in-app user's balance), however, Apple rejects the app since they do not allow this model for their applications.
Is there any other way (except In App Purchase API) we can accept the payments with?
Apple will only accept in-app purchases for this type of business model. Even then, you still have to submit each and every "in-app update" for approval at least a week prior.
Like Liam said, they want their piece of the pie too and they also don't want people slipping something past them (for instance, highly offensive content, pornography, etc.)
Per Apple:
You can create In App Purchases on both Free and Paid applications. Every product you want to offer in your store must first be registered with the App Store through iTunes Connect. When you register a product, you provide a name, description, and pricing for your product, as well as other metadata used by the App Store and your application.
There's no other way with this type of business model. More info here around page 116
Another option would be offering the same service via an ordinary website and then offer the app to allow users accessing their existing accounts. Take dropbox as an example - they offer paid memberships which you purchase on their website. The dropbox app itself is free but lets you access your dropbox account, for which you paid elsewhere.
In your case maybe you could offer "credits" for purchase (payable by premium-rated SMS) on your services website which the user could then spend by accessing his account from within the app.
This is less "direct" (requires the user to visit your website to pay for the content he will download later) and I wouldn't even bet on apple's approval (if the website appears to be merely a place for buying credits without further functionality, they'll propably reject the app too for circumventing in-app purchase), but then again, there are (propably) no alternatives. However, I'd talk with apple about this option before implementing it, to avoid wasting time and money. After all, in-app purchase is the way apple wants people to go if they want to spontaneously purchase content using only their device, so they'll defend it.
The easiest was to look at this is to work out why they refused the application, which is because it is not in their interest. You are selling a product to their customer and they are not getting any commission. In order for them to accept the app I would imagine that you will need to provide an in app purchase mechanism, but you could do this in addition to the Premium SMS as long as the app doesn't send the message