Credit card processor ProPay has introduced a new way for merchants to work with its ProtectPay secure data repository.ProPay provides businesses with the ability to accept credit cards and process them over the Internet or, with some accounts, the phone. The service is particularly suited to SMBs because it doesn't require any particular equipment up front and, the company says, the rates are fixed and predictable. ProPay plans range from $49.95/year for a Basic account that enables businesses to accept Visa and MasterCard and carries a monthly limit; up to $299.95/year for a Platinum account that adds Discover and American Express, charges lower per-transaction fees, and carries a higher, negotiable monthly limit.

ProtectPay, for its part, is an extension to the PropPay service. For an additional $19.95/year, it offers secure storage of customers' credit card data. The data is transmitted to ProtectPay and never resides on the merchant's system; ProtectPay assumes the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) compliance obligations. All the merchant receives is a algorithm-generated "token" identifying the customer's card--the token can be used for later purchases without re-entering or retrieving the actual credit card number.

Merchants can enter data into ProtectPay in a several different ways, a secure card reader being the most common. The service has recently added the Online Virtual Terminal, to give merchants the ability to transmit data to ProtectPay via any computers over the Internet. Current ProPay customers can log into their accounts to sign up for ProtectPay and the OVT.