ICICI payment gateway: All you need to know

When choosing an online payment provider for your business, it is important to look into these main areas-
1. Relevant payment options for your customer
2. Flexible fee and settlement structure
3. Payment and transaction security
4. 24/7 customer support
5. A seamless experience

ICICI’s Merchant Services, or IMS for short, was born out of a partnership formed between the well known Indian bank, ICICI, and First Data. First Data is a provider of e-commerce payment technology and services, working with 6 million merchants around the world¹. With IMS and First Data, businesses in India can provide electronic credit and debit payment solutions through physical point of sale terminals or an online payment gateway.

In this article, we will focus solely on the online payment gateway provided through IMS-First Data. Learn more about the facilities ICICI can provide an Indian business for taking payments through the internet, and if this could be a right fit for your business. And if your business needs to take payments internationally then you don’t need to look further than Wise for business, but we will get more into that later.

ICICI payment gateway pricing and charges

ICICI’s payment gateway for businesses in India is housed under the First Data payment gateway umbrella. With the IMS-First Data payment gateway, every plan is tailored and customized to the exact business and its needs. So it is difficult to pin down the exact costs you will incur as the pricing plan will vary depending on your size, volume, and required capabilities. But, here is a quick table to give you an idea of what comes in your plan²

Receiving business payments internationally? Try Wise.

Want a clear idea of how much a business account will cost you? Try Wise. Wise for business gives you a business account to receive local currency bank accounts in foreign currencies, with clear upfront pricing. No surprises or hidden markups. Take a look at how Wise can save you time, money and possibly, a headache.

Payment options supported with ICICI payment gateway

IMS First Data payment gateway lets your customers pay using all major credit and debit cards, net banking, recurring payments, and multiple currencies. It can also offer an EMI from different Indian banks across the country. EMI allows your customers to quickly get a loan and a payment plan for equal monthly installments for the purchase.³

ICICI payment gateway international payments

One major advantage of the IMS First Data payment gateway is that it provides an added convenience to get payments from Europe, Africa, Latin America, and some Asia Pacific markets. It allows customers in these areas to pay in local payment methods. The gateway calculates the exchange rate through DCC, or dynamic currency conversion, where the price shows up in the local currency but you, as a business, get paid in Indian rupees⁴.

But this does come with a catch. It means that your customer has to pay depending on the exchange rate the gateway sets up, which can often be unfavorable versus the real exchange rate. In this way, the gateway gets a cut of the purchase and your customer can end up paying more than they expected.

ICICI payment gateway settlements

Payments and settlements with this gateway follow these steps⁵:

1. After a customer chooses something from your website or app, they proceed to put in their card details in the payment form and hit submit.
2. ICICI-First Data checks to make sure all the right information is submitted and that there is enough money in the relevant account for the purchase.
3. If it is good to go, an authorization code is generated in real-time which places the funds on hold and reduces from the customer’s balance. If the funds aren’t available, the payment will be declined.
4. ICICI-First Data then provides you, the merchant, with daily settlements into your bank account, accompanied by reconciliation reports.

ICICI payment gateway customer care

IMS-First Data provide 24/7 service and support specialists, monitoring and disaster recovery to help make sure service is uninterrupted. They have a reliable 99.99% scheduled switch up-time, even during your busy buying times⁶.

Let Wise take care of your international payments

Getting payments from abroad doesn’t need to be confusing or expensive. With Wise you get a free business account. Plus whether you get payments from customers or make them internationally to suppliers or teammates, you get the exact exchange rate you see on Google. So there are no markups or surprises. And with a one-time low fee that you see upfront, it is always 100% transparent and clear what you and your customers get. Wise is a simple and low-cost way to bring your business to the global marketplace.

Sources used for this article
1ICICI Merchant Services
2 First Data
3 Payment Methods
4 International Payment Method
5 Authorization and Settlements
6 About Us