Basic Pointers On Finding Merchant Account Services
Here are beginner tips on checking out effective merchant account services:
- Examine Fees Charged: There are many different vendors out there and as a result there are diverse fees assessed to transactions. If you utilise credit card processing services you will be charged: A monthly fee, a discount rate which is essentially a percentage of the cost of the product sold and a transaction fee. There are also other fees applied by some vendors so you should watch out for that.
- Receiving payments online is not as simple as you might think and when a customer purchases something online there are three steps the money goes through before it actually gets to your bank account. These include a payment gateway, Internet merchant a/c, and your web site.
- Things to avoid, if you can: a) Expensive credit-card processing softwares rental or hire-purchase. b) Monthly fees. c) High discounts (the % of your sales they keep). d) Fat fees up front (anything over $500 is a joke). e) Salesmen calling you up with a scripted pitch. f) Getting foisted with renting their shopping cart as well. Also if they want a down-payment, and the size of their application fee. And the usual monthly minimums, discounts etc.
- Internet credit-card processing a/cs: If you have a merchant a/c you can take credit-card from anyone in any country, but if you’re taking them over the phone or the internet you must be authorised for ‘card not present’ transactions. If you’re taking credit-card details over the internet, specify that you want an _internet_ credit-card processing account. This is important. ‘Card not present’ transactions attract more fraud; if you do them with an ordinary credit card processing a/c you risk losing it.
- You can use a third-party to process your payments. They take a percentage of the sale. These are very good if you’re just a beginner or you have a small business. They also offer more options for payment. This encourages sales. Here are some famous ones: PayPal.Com, 2Checkout.Com, WorldPay.Com and Google Checkout.
- Don’t leave large amounts of cash ‘on deposit’ in any internet-based company; they’re not banks, and even banks go bust sometimes.
- When you’re making $1000+ a month, get your own merchant account. Look for ‘merchant services’ at your neighborhood bank. Having your own credit card processing a/c means paying less in processing fees.
I hope these few simple pointers will assist you in researching inexpensive merchant account services.
About the author: Niccolo Svengali is an author for merchant account services and homeowners insurance internet sites in London in the UK.