In the past, people bartered for household objects that they needed in order to survive. In other words, they traded objects and items for other objects and items that they needed. Later during the course of human history, people started to use cash money to pay for everything that they needed. During this period of human history, merchants preferred gold and silver coins to paper money.

Today, however, electronic money has largely replaced paper and gold money. Instead of carrying physical money, most individuals use debit cards and credit cards which either deduct money from the individual’s bank account or add a charge to his credit that must be repaid within a certain time span. These cards are becoming more popular than cash for several reasons. For one thing, many individuals are worried that muggers will steal their cash. Stolen cash can never be recovered, but a stolen debit or credit card can be deactivated.

Additionally, online shopping has become incredibly popular over the last decade. Studies suggest that more than ten percent of customers across the country visited an online retailer using their smartphones. An additional six percent used their phones to purchase an item. (These numbers have increased incrementally for the last few years.) Furthermore, many businesses are opening credit card merchant accounts so that they can engage in e commerce purchases (instead of online shopping, which is geared for individual shoppers). Many of these businesses engage in level 3 processing credit card transactions which involve government or corporate issued credit cards. These credit cards allow businesses to engage in B2B credit card processing, a “financial supply chain” which includes ERP vendors, commercial banks, billing and collections solution providers, and business process outsourcing firms.

To facilitate credit card processing online, many of these companies which offer credit card processing online use cloud based payments to speed up credit card processing online. Using cloud based payments systems to set up credit card processing online is often faster, cheaper, and easier than paying credit cards through mail or over the phone. Furthermore, payment processing companies which use cloud technologies to do credit card processing online often receive better reviews than companies which refuse to use credit card processing online technology.