Tracking transaction data from credit card, any API? - yodlee

I am required to create an application which collects transaction details of bank accounts, there are APIs like
Plaid
Yodlee
Geezeo
But these APIs make use of the clients username and password for retrieving the transaction data, but in my case I need to do so using only the credit card number.
Can it even be done?
Is there any other APIs that provide this functionality?
I have researched about this issue a lot but still can't seem to find any APIs that suits the requirement. Any help is appreciated, Thank you.


I just answered essentially this question for another user (Serizawa Sanjay), here is my response below:
"
I have worked for Credit Unions that have experience with all these types of APIs. The Geezeo and the Yodlee API will not allow you to do what you want since that would violate the privacy on the card and the card issuers will not allow someone outside of the flow of approvals to get to that data. There are a few APIs that you can get by working with partners like FirstData to look for a certain type of transaction or vendor that comes across their system if it matches a certain card number, but you have to be a key partner with FirstData, not an easy task.
As far as aggregating transaction data from accounts like credit cards, bank accounts, auto loans, mortgages, investment accounts and the like, you really want to be using an API like MoneyDesktop. Yodlee is good as well, it just does not have the coverage, uptime, or quality of data that MoneyDesktop has. Geezeo's API just does not have the critical features that a MoneyDesktop or Yodlee API has. First Geezeo does not do its own aggregation and it only has one partner to do their agg for them. Yodlee is only one source, but if there is a broken connection, at least they can control fixing it. If a connection goes down with Geezeo, there is nothing that Geezeo can do to fix it but wait for their aggregation provider to fix it. If your business, bank or credit union can't afford for aggregation to go down (reputation risk), you need someone like Yodlee that controls their own aggregation, or someone like MoneyDesktop that has many aggregation providers and can route between them the second that one of their connections has problems. Also, Yodlee and MoneyDesktop both do their own data cleansing and aggregation, where Geezeo does not and has to rely on their aggregation provider. This is extremely problematic because as users editing and input to the system as to the transaction being data cleansed incorrectly or categorized incorrectly is not taken into account properly or optimally.
I have also heard that Intuit Data Services has a good API as well, but I have never had any experience with it.
Good luck!
"

Related

Can I use API to Automate Posting Tracking Numbers to orders?

We ship using FEDEX and UPS, and we never found a need to post the tracking number to the payment record, however, recently a customer did a charge-back and the claim was that the order was not shipped even though it was. The tracking number was not entered into paypal, but we do have a tracking number for this order. Do we need to manually enter every tracking number into Paypal, or do we have a chance to enter it after a chargeback attempt has been made?

PayPal's standard API does not provide a field for tracking numbers in their order details, so there is no way to automatically send PayPal this information for all orders.
Their API supports disputes, so it could be possible, however it looks like it could be very messy. The workflow would look like this:
Use PayPal's Customer Disputes API to GET all disputes with a dispute_state of REQUIRED_ACTION and reason of MERCHANDISE_OR_SERVICE_NOT_RECEIVED. Save the Order ID
Cross reference the Order ID with your order management software's API to get a tracking number. If the tracking number exists,
Use PayPal's Customer Disputes API to escalate the dispute to a claim and save the returned claim API endpoint.
The documentation gets a little fuzzy here and may require some contact ith PayPal's support team, but it looks like you should be able to POST evidence to the claim with PROOF_OF_FULFILLMENT, which includes tracking_number and carrier_name.
Unless you are processing a high volume of these missing order claims it probably won't make sense to go through all this legwork. If it truly is taking a lot of time and energy for you or your staff to handle this specific type of PayPal dispute then maybe it would be worthwhile. I might also suggest in this case to start toggling the "signature required" settings for your shipping partners.

retrieve interest rates for credit cards using Yodlee

I am using Yodlee to get the transactional history and summary of accounts for my clients to do some predictive maths on their debt levels.
Is it possible to get the interest rate for a credit card account? Looking in the data model here there are references to APR and interest paid to date.
However using Testdrive These fields are not being returned using: getItemSummaryForItem1 or getContentServiceInfo1.
The banks I am using are ANZ (NZ) and ASB (NZ) I would like to know if these sites do not support credit card interest rates, if they do please let me know what api calls I need to make to retrieve them.

As a data field interest rate(APR) is supported, but it also depends upon the bank whether they provides it or not. If you are existing Yodlee customer, you can send a request to Yodlee Support team to get your doubts clarified. BTW, the API should be used- getItemSummariesForSite or getItemSummaryForItem1( if you are looking for further details, pass correct Data Extents, while making request).

What are the differences between Paypal's API and BrainTrees v.zero API, and Which would work more efficiently for a Node.JS Marketplace Website? [closed]

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Please explain the difference between all the different PayPal API's that are offered, and why they have so many different ones. If you were to build a new marketplace website in comparison to Amazon or Etsy, or an SaaS such as Volusion or Shopify, and you were to charge a per-sale fee, could it be done using PayPal's services? Also, do they offer OAuth, such as login with google, I see they have a permissions API what does this entale. And above all else, What is different between PayPal and Braintree they appear to be very similar from the outside?

I want to start off by saying, that even though your question regards PayPal I would probably off the top of my head tell you to look at a different service...(Stripe http://www.stripe.com was what I’d recommended originally, but I’ll teach that another day). But regardless, for now I’m going to limit my response to PayPal and what sort of Application Programming Language Interfaces (API)’s they offer; as that what you asked about, and that in and of its self is a good sized undertaking.
Over the years PayPal’s API has gone from being a very simple system to one of the best in the industry. It encompasses so many things that it’d be easy to get confused. So while your question is broad, I believe I can provide some bit of guidance.
It sounds to me that what you are asking for is how can you do split payments or mass payouts to your customers. I also must say, that it sounds very similar to a so called marketplace service, such as Amazon.com or many other major ecommerce sites. These sites generally act in a bit of a collaborative way, allowing customers to buy products from them, as well as sell products themselves. That’s not the rule, but rather just what has evolved in the online economy over the years.
First we need to understand what is an API, and what does it do, and how can it be utilized. We’ll also need to have a good basic understanding of how data driven websites work, and the concepts of how they talk to each other. In addition, you’ll want to have an understanding of the underlying languages needed to use an API. If you don’t possess this knowledge, I would suggest you’ll want to start there.
But in talking about PayPal’s API, it supports a wide variety, and includes NVP/Soap (which would be considered their “classic” API) as well as their shiny new REST API. Depending on what language your web application is being developed in, you’ll want to choose the appropriate language.
Next, you’ll need to understand the functions of what their API can do, and how it can be utilized to make your business work more efficiently and provide better services to your customers. Once you understand the functionality, you’ll be able to better understand how to achieve your end goal, and you’ll probably find some other things along the way, which you didn’t think of until you dive into it.
As you know, PayPal can In-fact provide the service which you’re looking for. In order to achieve that functionality, I think you’re going to want to research and become familiar with a few things. First, you’ll want to think about how many customers you will have, as this will be something that is important as you develop your service. For example, there are account limits on certain functions, and occasionally you may find that understanding what technology is available, will allow you to come up with better, more creative plans while in the architecture phase of your application.
As I said earlier, they offer quite a variety of different API’s to choose from, however, if your goal is to act as either a “marketplace” website such as Amazon or Sears.com, or if you want to act as a SaaS solution such as Amazon Web Stores, Shopify or Volusion. I assume that either way you go, you’re going to be wanting to allow your customers to get paid, and that to be realistic we need to assume that in order for your service to be considered as a realistic option, you’ll need to offer more ways to pay than only PayPal. Credit Cards, Checks, Bank Transfers, BitCoin, Etc. The list goes on. You might be sitting there thinking “Uh Oh” I just am not sure where to begin with that!” Regardless the fact that the original PayPal might not offer every method, as we learn when they say
“Our payments technology lets you accept credit cards, debit cards, and PayPal payments via mobile devices, computers, and storefronts”paypal
I assure you that there is no reason to panic. PayPal got its success originally by providing a service to small sellers such as someone selling on eBay and that was their niche for many years. As a result of being so successful in their niche PayPal to me is one of the services that has really helped contribute to making the internet be the internet we see today, they helped millions of people build businesses, and consequently they have grown over the years, and now offer a whole variety of payment services, each of them marketed as separate “products” and a couple that are even their own brands. While technically they are not a bank, (if we don’t count their subsidiaries), they are absolutely to be considered a giant in the payment industry. Yet when we compare their website to the sites of some of the larger banking institutions, we find it to be much more user friendly. In spite of the user friendly design, with so much to choose from, a novice can easily get
overwhelmed, and so for quick reference sake, join me for a semi-quick flyover of what services PayPal offers which can help an aspiring marketplace, or software as a service company.
Let’s start by reviewing some of the most common and in my opinion important services to be familiar with when it comes to using PayPal, and let me give a brief overview of what each is. When we’re done with that, we will go over which of these services will be best to use if you want to run a company with a web application that does split-payments, marketplace services, or any other service where by one might need to accept money from a third party, keep a percentage and forward the rest onto his client.
PayPal for a beginner who needs to accept payments from someone, but
may not need any sort of API access to integrate with.
PayPal Business – Used by the individual who starts selling more than he can on his personal account.
PayPal Here – Used to accept payments on your phone with a card
reader.
PayPal POS Solutions – Used as a cash register in a physical store.
PayPal Online Invoicing – Used to send email invoices to your
customers
The products we just listed may be a viable solution for some sellers, however this is about which API’s to use and which services can an e-commerce website, or a marketplace website utilize best and find the most benefits from. There are only certain options for API access. So as to not be confused, we will quickly go through them as well. So if your goal with using PayPal is to create the new Amazon.com Etsy or EBay, these are the services you should learn to use, and learn more about.
PayPal Accounts and Services for a more developed company, a start up
with a more complex application or workflow, or anyone who needs to
integrate PayPal’s services into their computer systems in some way:
** Paypal Payments Standard ** – This one is pretty self-descriptive,
however it is PayPal’s most e-commerce capable service. Learn more by
visiting this link
Express Checkout - Allows you to let a customer check out through PayPal from your shopping cart, and also allows you to build a shopping cart of
sorts within PayPal. Limited API access
PayPal Payments Pro is the type
of account that many e-commerce companies find they need in order to
utilize PayPal’s services, and it offers pretty good API access. If
you have a PayPal Payments Pro account, there are also a couple of
services which you can get in addition for a small extra monthly fee.
PayPal Virtual Terminal - Allows you to take a “phone order” from a customer and to enter charge card info in manually. Does not require a customer to know you are using PayPal.
Payflow Payment Gateway Fully Integrated Payment solution, comparable to a regular merchant account. Pay Flow, can actually be utilized with your own banks merchant services account but that’s a subject for another time.
While all of the services I listed above only allow you to accept the most common payment methods, in today’s online economy, we usually do want to accept more types, and as I said earlier, there is much more to PayPal than meets the eye, and they definitely have been spending their time and money spreading their wings. Thanks to a new service they recently rolled out, called Braintree, PayPal has evolved, they’re no longer the restrictive payment service that they seemed doomed to become for a period of time. Braintree is just one of their many “extracurricular” service offerings that they now have, and I while I don’t have time to go over them all today, I will touch on the few of those lesser known PayPal services that I find most useful to an e-commerce store, or marketplace website.
Braintree zero – Braintree was acquired from PayPal not that long ago, and has been touted as an “open source” payment system. They’re goal is to re-invent how payments are exchanged, allowing the process to become more seamless. It has very advanced API functionality as well, which we’ll discuss, and is definitely “the new kid on the block”
Paydiant – This one is complex, but allows for mobile payments, loyalty programs, and more. It is marketed to merchants, Banks, and Partners. To learn more go here. It’s not going to be covered in this post, but may be worth looking at.
PayPal also has services such as the service that was mentioned by the person who asked the question prompting this post, such as the way shopify has you give permissions to them. While I’m not sure of Shopify’s exact use for it, I can think of many. The way they describe it is
“PayPal offers several services to help merchants easily manage authentication for their customers in a secure way. PayPal services enable merchants to set up PayPal accounts for customers, configure and manage permissions for customers, store customer credit card details with PayPal, and also streamline the login process.”
Paypal Authentication Security Docs
The services that are available through the Authentication API include:
PayPal Vault – This service allows you to securely store your customer credit card and transaction information whether or not you’re payment processor is PayPal, Braintree, or your own bank. They describe it as
*”The Vault API provides a secure way to store customer credit cards. By storing cards with PayPal, you can avoid storing them on your servers.” *
While whether or not it can be used to directly accept card payments varies by country, it is still a service that can be a valuable asset no matter what.
The Identity API or Log In With PayPal – With this Customers can use
Log In with PayPal buttons to log in to your website with their
PayPal credentials. It is used for a few different things including:
Log In With PayPal – which allows you to authenticate customers into
your system through their credentials with PayPal, similar to the
Login with Google or other Open Auth systems on the market.
Seamless Checkout – If you use Login with PayPal, you can
also use seamless checkout, allowing as they describe it
“The PayPal Identity API supports the seamless checkout feature, which
gives customers the ability to directly checkout using their PayPal
account. Once logged in to your website through Log In with PayPal,
the buyer can seamlessly checkout with PayPal without the need to log
in to PayPal again.”
PayPal Adaptive Accounts API – “Use the Adaptive Accounts
API to build applications that create and manage PayPal accounts.
Merchants and developers can use the API to create PayPal accounts,
add payment methods to accounts, and verify a PayPal account status."
Permissions API – Last but not least, PayPal’s Permissions API,
allows
“…you to request and obtain authorization to make API calls
and take action on behalf of your customers. The service is automated
and easy to use, walking customers through the permissions being
granted and what they mean, minimizing the time required. Permissions
are organized in groups that are self-descriptive and help lower the
barrier to on-board your customers. When the customer finishes the
permissions flow, they are redirected back to your site.”
Permissions API is used for many things, which you can learn more
about through the link, but the most common are getting permissions
in a workflow, Disbursements or Payouts, Refunds, Recurring Payments,
Obtaining Transaction Information and Tracking Group Dues. For a
complete overview, see the PayPal Permissions Service Integration
Guide.
The final services I will cover are the payout services. These are the services that PayPal Offers to let a company that is a marketplace, such as a split pay transaction, or other business that needs to pay many people, disburse funds to them through a variety of methods.
Permissions API - One way as we mentioned earlier is to authenticate into the customer’s account and send disbursements within PayPal.
Payouts API - The Payouts API is a REST interface that enables you to not only send up to 500 disbursements in one API call, but also ensures you can easily send, track, and search for previously issued payouts. In order to get started with the Payout API, you should visit, and For More information as far as integrating it into your website, see Payouts documentation and Payouts REST API reference
PayPal Mass Pay API - With Mass Pay, you can submit mass payments
directly from your PayPal account or use the Mass Pay API to submit
them. Mass Pay includes NVP/SOAP API operations that enable you to
easily create a set of payouts by identifying each individual
recipient and the amount of each payout. With Mass Pay, you can take
care of commissions, rebates and rewards, and even make all the
general payouts that come with running a business. It’s important to
note, that with the Payouts API you do not necessarily have to be a
PayPal seller to use it, but with the Mass Pay API, you need to be.
PayPal Mass Pay API is one of the best options for a
marketplace business. Merchants use the Mass Pay API to send money
instantly to up to 250 recipients at once. To send payments to
multiple recipients, merchants only need the recipient's PayPal
account email address, the payment amount, and the currency code.
Merchants can manually upload a file listing payments or create them
programmatically using the Mass Pay API.
To get started with Mass Pay API, you should visit the “getting
started guide”
For more information on integrating it in your web application, you
should see: the Mass Payments User Guide
the Mass Pay NVP API Documentation
Or if using SOAP API, the SOAP API Documentation
You can also check out their section for Sample Apps at GitHub
Finally, let me go into some more detail regarding PayPal’s new service Braintree v.Zero. What is Braintree you might ask? Well, as paypal describes it, it is
“…a full-stack payments platform that makes it easy to accept payments
in your app or website. Our service replaces the traditional model of
sourcing a payment gateway and merchant account from different
providers. From one touch payments to mobile SDKs and foreign currency
acceptance, we provide everything you need to start accepting payments
today.”
So after reading that you might be thinking “This sounds pretty good, what types of payments can I accept with the Braintree service?” They also answer that question in a different point stating:
“Merchants in the US can use Braintree to accept PayPal, Apple Pay,
Android Pay, Venmo, Bitcoin and most credit and debit cards, including
Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, JCB and Diner’s
Club.”
You will find while reading that question that you might have concerns about your locality and whether it’s available in your country or not. They give us that answer in pretty clear terms, stating
“Your business must operate out of a US, Canadian, Australian, Europe,
Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, New Zealand-based office. You must
also have a bank account with a US, European, Australian, Canadian,
Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia or New Zealand-chartered bank. The
location of your customers has no effect on where you are domiciled.”
So after reading all that, I’d imagine you’re thinking, okay that sounds pretty good. So then which API do I use in order to integrate with it?” If we read a little bit more through PayPal and Braintree’s website, we will be able to learn that the Braintree V.Zero API supports a multitude of languages including:
“On the client side, we have a JavaScript library for mobile and
desktop web, plus mobile SDKs for iOS, Android, and Windows Phone. On
the server side, we have libraries in six languages: Ruby, Python,
PHP, Java, Microsoft .Net, and Node.js.”
And if you needed one last reason to seriously consider using PayPal’s new Braintree v.Zero API, it also seems that if you succeed in building your SaaS as you describe, you could become a so called “partner” with them, and be featured on their websites, and that’s something that definitely won’t hurt your SEO. To learn more about that just visit the links.
While looking at Braintree’s documentation, I see that if you want to run a marketplace or do split payments with them, that you will need to notify them and contact sales, but beyond that there is not a whole lot. From my experience, starting your account with PayPal and migrating into Braintree is the easiest approach. They actually let you know exactly what your responsibilities and their responsibilities are in that type of relationship by saying
“You maintain the relationships with the customers of your
marketplace, and Braintree will be there to support you every step of
the way. That means that you will work directly with your customers to
provide refunds and handle any chargebacks or disputed charges. You’ll
also be responsible for knowing who your sellers are, and ensuring
that they deliver products/services that don’t break any laws.
Braintree will back you up with all of the reports and information you
need to support your customers.”
PayPal also details how the Braintree API can be used for payouts, stating:
Braintree Marketplace streamlines payments for your market-style
business, enabling you to effortlessly split payments between you and
your providers. Marketplace is transparent and built for mobile
first, empowering you to build an elegant, custom checkout experience
on any platform.
Learn more about Braintree Marketplace features.
To learn more about the Braintree Marketplace services
visit
For the Developer Documentation on the Braintree Marketplace
API Visit Here
The last service I’ll cover are for larger accounts, and for paying out large numbers of customers at once.
PayPal’s Adaptive Payments API
With the Adaptive Payments API, merchants and developers can create applications that manage payments, payment pre-approvals, and
refunds. Merchants and developers also can send money peer-to-peer,
and can split payments in both parallel and chained models. The
Adaptive Payments API is robust enough to support numerous use cases,
including distributing payroll online, managing a storefront for
physical or digital goods, and tracking payments of group dues. Learn
more about the use cases supported by Adaptive Payments and how to
get started.
You can find developer documentation for Adaptive Payments Here
PayPal’s Adaptive Payments API
I hope you found my overview of PayPal helpful, and I hope this gives you somewhere to start while planning how to build your new web application. If you find that PayPal is not the service provider for you, you may also want to consider Stripe.com With all of the services PayPal has to offer, you may find it hard to believe there are companies that have certain solutions that might be better suited, however, in the case of stripe vs PayPal, I would say it’s a fair match.
Good Luck.

Policy of data generated using Plaid API or Yodlee

I'm working on a startup and we plan to use Plaid API or Yodlee for banking data aggregation ie credit history and previous transactions. I wanted to know about the data policy of these services from a fellow programmer who has worked on it. The sales guys give a pretty garbled view.
My questions are mainly
If one of my users had previously given their data to these
aggregators (ie maybe used Yodlee for mint) do they have to put in
each of their bank login details again if they use my service or do
they have a sort of user profile with which they can authorize my
app to view the data stored in their service.
Does Plaid API/Yodlee use the data I generate for its own uses and
do my users owe these data to these services and not me?
If I want to move out do they still hold my users data (the bank
accounts they have signed up with)as a profile on their desk?
PS: I think this question follows SO's policy but feel free to correct me if not.

eCommerce - Multiple Bank Accounts Automated Transactions

Evening
I have a client who is asking to build an eCommerce tool in which multiple stores are able to create accounts and their products in order to sell them via a web app.
This is not like any regular eCommerce sites since we are working with multiple stores each one of them with an unique bank account.
The quick solution is to ask the stores users to give me the bank account and all extra sensitive information and do the transaction via coding my self... but i don't want to mess with such delicate data that is why im looking for some service that helps me do that.
I know that i can use auth net to build something like that but my main client will have to pay for each of those merchant accounts, which is not a very good option.
Any of you had the chance to work in something like this before? Can you tell me which services you used? Would be extraordinary to use the same payment gateway to do everything but i am probably asking for too much...
Waiting for answers, thanks in advance

You definitely don't want to be storing bank information and card data if you are not Level 1 PCI compliant. There is a lot of financial liability if you do so.
There is a company called Base Commerce (www.basecommerce.com) which allows developers such as yourself to create a 'partner' account and associate multiple merchant accounts under it. You can spin up or down as many accounts as you want, all programatically, at no cost (except for the small % transaction fees that are normal in payment processing). You will also get commissions on the transactions your merchants process.