Payment Service Provider

Payment glossary

Please note: This payment glossary exists only in the German language.
Payment glossary

What is a Payment Service Provider?


Whether operator of a web shop, digital content provider or organization with online donations - almost everyone who accepts payments on the Internet is well advised to use a payment service provider.

A payment service provider, also known as a payment service provider, payment provider, payment gateway or PSP for short, is a partner who handles the complete technical processing of various online payments and links a website to payment systems. This will largely automate the payment process on your website, but at the same time your customers will have access to different payment methods. Payment service providers provide traditional payment methods such as credit card, SEPA direct debit or prepayment and e-payment methods such as PayPal, Online Bank Transfer and paydirekt, but also alternative payment methods such as telephone/call or mobile pay, which can be easily and quickly integrated into an online shop or a website.

Advantages of a payment service provider

Above all, the PSP saves you work. It bundles contracts, technical connections and coordinates all processes that are necessary for the processing of online payments:

  1. contractual management

    • The PSP provides you with acceptance agreements of selected cooperation partners and handles the contracts completely for you.
    • The payment service provider is the link between the individual payment methods and therefore avoids a flood of special contracts with countless providers.
    • A PSP offers you a complete condition sheet from a single source and protects you from a marathon of price bargaining.

  2. technical connection

    • Payment service providers give you plugins for an easy integreation of the payment methods to your shop system (eg Gambio, Magento or WooCommerce)
    • With pre-built payment windows and APIs, a PSP simplifies dramatically the time-consuming task of integrating payment systems into websites.

  3. management and presentation of your sales

    • A payment service provider shows you all sales for all used payment methods from a single source on a cumulative billing.
    • The payment service provider displays all payments in statistics and dashboards clearly and live for you.
    • The payment service provider provides you with data export and accounting simplification reports.

  4. securing payments

    • The payment service provider helps you with numerous security features and secures every single payment.
    • A payment service provider integrates security systems for your customers directly into the payment method, thus ensuring a high level of confidence in the security of the payment of your customers.
    • Payment service providers often use debt collection services and credit bureaus to cover ancillary services such as receivables and risk management.

Less effort and more revenue thanks to Payment Service Provider

The use of a payment service provider thus offers the advantage of receiving all technical payment services from a single source. With a single contractor and contact person, you can realize the work steps that you would normally have to implement with innumerable banks, credit card brands, service providers and partners. You save time, money and nerves by unified management of your transaction data, billing, pricing and accounting processes.

In addition, you benefit from the extensive know-how of the payment service provider and, even in the case of new challenges, you can rely on a solution that is always state-of-the-art and meets the legal requirements.