Payment gateway

A payment gateway is the plumbing between a checkout and the banking system. When a buyer pays, the gateway authorises the transaction with the buyer's bank, confirms the funds, and settles them to the business that collected them.

It is concerned with the mechanics of moving money and with fraud detection on the payment itself. It is not concerned with whether the goods ever arrive, which is a separate problem entirely.

This is the distinction that trips people up. A gateway successfully processing a payment tells you the money is real and has moved. It does not tell you anything about whether the seller will ship, whether the item matches its description, or what happens if it does not.

Protection comes from what sits on top of the gateway: who is holding the money, under what conditions it is released, and who can freeze it. That is the escrow layer, and it is a different product from the payment rail.

Payments on ChatCart are processed by a licensed payment provider, which handles the authorisation and settlement. ChatCart's escrow layer sits above that: the payment is collected into the platform's control and held rather than passed on to the seller immediately.

Refunds travel back through the same gateway to the original payment method — which is why a refund is not instant, and why the arrival time is set by the buyer's bank rather than by ChatCart.