When you place an order at Custom Care Package, our online shopping cart and cash register collect your order and credit card information. This information is sent to our payment gateway, which handles the credit card processing.

When our gateway receives information about an order, it stores the information and prepares the transaction data to be sent to the financial institutions involved. To do this, the gateway "translates" the information into the format required for financial transactions. The gateway also encrypts the information so that credit card transactions are as secure as possible. The gateway sends information to the card processor, which communicates with the cardholder's and merchant's financial institutions.

The following diagram shows how your credit card information is authorized.

This process happens almost instantly, as it does when you make a credit card purchase at a brick-and-mortar store (where the authorization takes place at a cash register). With the authorization received, your order can be filled.