# New to Programming - question on

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/new-to-programming-question-on/149469>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [September 25, 2008, 3:46am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/new-to-programming-question-on/149469 "2008-09-25T03:46:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![closedbook](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/82dd89/32.png) [@closedbook](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/closedbook)\
**Post date:** [September 25, 2008, 3:46am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/new-to-programming-question-on/149469/1 "2008-09-25T03:46:31Z")

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Hi All,

I’m very new to programming, so please don’t flame me for asking a  
potentially easy question. Google hasn’t been good to me, so I thought  
I’d ask here. What got me into RoR and into programming in general is  
because I wanted to create cool things and solve some problems I’ve been  
having.

Given that, does anyone know of any free libraries or APIs that allow  
your application to interface directly with banks? I’m wanting to create  
a sort of semi-clone to paypal as a way to learn while trying to solve a  
problem that I’m having.

Thanks in advance for your help!

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**Author:** ![closedbook](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/82dd89/32.png) [@closedbook](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/closedbook)\
**Post date:** [September 25, 2008, 10:21am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/new-to-programming-question-on/149469/2 "2008-09-25T10:21:22Z")

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There are plugins and gems that can help you with e-commerce and  
credit cards and that stuff, but I don’t know about creating a PayPal  
clone as I think you would need some kind of partnership with the  
banks. Mind you PayPal doesn’t operate with any banks, just Credit  
Card companies like Visa and Master Card.

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**Author:** ![closedbook](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/82dd89/32.png) [@closedbook](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/closedbook)\
**Post date:** [September 25, 2008, 2:10pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/new-to-programming-question-on/149469/3 "2008-09-25T14:10:36Z")

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Hi Abel,

Ah, so that’s how it works? So I am guessing if you have a debit card  
without a credit card number you can’t sign up for paypal?