what are options for credit card processing

I'd like my credit cards to process live. Currently, I am using PayPal's virtual terminal and cutting and pasting the information to run credit cards offline. I'd like the payments to be processed live when the order is made. Can this be done via PayPal or do I need another service? Do I use a plugin or sign up with Authorize.net? I've never really understood this! :blink:
Thanks in advance!

Further info: I have already signed up for PayPal Payments Pro. I would like users to get an experience of paying by credit card but not having to specify PayPal. My payment options look like this:
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Payment Method We accept: Visa MC AmEx Discover

Please select a payment method for this order.
o Credit Card
Card Owner's Name:
Card Number:
Expiration Date:
CVV Number (More Info)

o Paypal IPN

o Check/Money Order
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I am struggling to understand how to make it so I can have them pay by cc but have it processed live. Or am I going about this incorrectly?

The Direct Payment portion of PayPal Pro is not available yet.

Thank you for that clarification. I've spent hours going around and around on this. So can I process payments live? I just want to sign up for something and run with it. I can't afford to keep processing credit cards manually and don't trust anyone else with this data. Honestly, I don't even want to have this data stored! It seems dangerous! What am I missing!? (And grrr because I have been paying PayPal for this service which their nifty little video says I can do and that's why I upgraded Zencart, thinking this would suddenly work).

Ellen,
I did the same thing! Confused me for hours!
On top of that they accepted my payment for the payments pro program but now my account is on hold until I verify more info (which they're still giving me a hard time about by the way!).
In the meantime I signed up for Authorize.net which is a bit more as well as having a setup fee. But so far, no problem and everything has been super easy to set up. The rep has even been very accessible with some newbie questions I had and never made me feel like Iwas bothering her.
So far Authorize.net has been very good for me.

Now to figure out how to get them to unfreeze my paypal account so I can cancel it!

Yay! Thank you for the response! Sometimes I don't like to ask because it seems like I should be able to figure it out but then months go by and I still don't get it. I had started the application process with authorize.net so I completed that yesterday and they should get back to me today. I guess I'll have PayPal refund me for the useless fees they have enjoyed charging me. I really liked doing it all in one place because I did my shipping labels out of PayPal so I am unclear how that is going to work going forward but perhaps it will be time for endicia or something else. My concern is that I will be trading problems; if I have to cut and paste to do shipping labels, I still won't have saved any time.

If you use Encidia, you don't actually have to cut and past. you can simply open your Encidia.

Then, opne your order, highlight the shipping name and address, press CTRL+C on your keyboard, then toggle to your Encidia program, and you will see that it automatically placed your copied address into the program. It doesn't take any time to do it this way whatsoever!!

I am trying to get all my payments set up with Paypal, and am disappointed because it lists that paypal payments pro is workable on zen cart. So i purchased it, came here to see how to set it up, and find out that it isn't compatible at this time. I don't really want to use a different service, as i want it all in one...so guess I will wait for the release, then upgrade. bummer, hate to wait!!