So here's a thought. Are there any perl scripts that can handle the credit card transactions through a socket? I don't think I've seen one in my browsing through CPAN, but I have to admit, I've never looked for one.

Seems like some code somewhere has to exist to process transactions... I mean, people are doing it all the time. But I haven't seen it done in perl, and I can't think of any particular reasons why it wouldn't be suited to the job...