Resource Links for Internet Marketing

How to accept credit cards today
Your own merchant account or
3rd parties credit card processing

What is merchant account?

To do business online, you need to have the ability to accept credit cards over the web. To accept credit cards, you need a merchant account or 3rd party processing company.

Merchant account providers come in all size and shape. It is very difficult and time consuming to evaluate them. Most of the time, you can only rely on what the merchant account providers tell you or what their web site shows you.

The best way to find a most suitable merchant account provider is to ask business people that you know of. Ask them about their experience with their current merchant account provider or which merchant account providers do they recommend.

The fundamental way of evaluating merchant account providers is to compare the fees they charge. Check about the application fee, setup fee, software leasing fee, equipment fee, monthly gateway fee, gateway liscence fee, annual fee, discount rate, per transaction fee, and the termination fee.

Basically, all merchant account incurred fees because bank charges them; gateway provider charges them; and the clearing house charges them.

Next find out how long do they take to approve your merchant account application. Some providers offers instant approval, while other takes about 5 - 7 days, with some take up to 2 weeks.

Next you will want to know how soon your merchant account providers deposit your fund into your checking account. This can vary from 48 - 72 hours, to as long as a month. Find out also the reserve fund requirement. This will let you know how much money is not available for you because they are held in the reserve of your merchant account your provider required.

Find out if there is a monthly minimum requirement. When you do not make many sales, your merchant account servicer will charge you the diference between your fee incurred and the minimum fee required.

Make sure your merchant account has real-time processing capability. This allows you to accept payment in real time. Also you should be getting a virtual terminal so that you can punch in customers' credit card information and process them offline.

An important note: If you currently have a storefront retail merchant account, make sure you ask your bank whether they allow you to accept credit cards over the Internet. Most of the time, you were approved for the card-presence merchant account, and your bank may view your new Internet venture as high risk and do not allow.

Failure to get approval from your bank in this regard can get your current card-presence merchant account closed. There are many cases where merchant account providers simply closed down their clients' merchant account simply because they violated the original term.

On the other hand, if you are new and do not want to go through the merchant account application process, there are 3rd party credit card processing company that will process your credit cards sale for a percentage of your sales' price. Usually, they will charge a setup fee, per transaction fee and a percentage of your sale price as their commission.