Customer can pay for ordered services in one of the following ways: using credit card, using bank account, using bank check/cash. In terms of Billing the way customer pays for services is payment system. Before a payment system can be used, it has to be registered in Billing and associated with one of payment gateways. Check/Cash payment system is presented by default. Information about checks and bank transfers is added manually by vendor.
In respect to credit cards, each particular payment system has own settings. Thus, to make it possible for a customer to make a payment with a credit card, the system the card belongs to (for example, American Express, Visa, MasterCard and so on), has to be registered in Billing, assigned a mask, and associated with one of payment gateways. If a mask is not assigned to a payment system, a customer is not allowed to register a credit card as a payment method.
Please keep in mind that exact credit card payment system assignment is necessary only for direct payment gateways (that is, when a credit card data is entered in a CloudBlue Commerce control panel). For redirect payment gateways (that is, when payer is redirected to a secure payment page and enters credit card data there) the External Payment Site payment system is to be configured.
Note: in terms of Billing, under 'credit card' we mean either credit card or debit card.