I need to be able to accept credit cards. Presently, my warehouse doesn’t ship internationally. Many of my customers are in other countries. Many of these countries do not like to use PayPal because of the high tax tarrifs and fees involved with using PayPal’s service. I’d like a Merchant solution that is affordable and does not require me to open a Commericial Bank Account. Presently, I have just a regular checking account and I’d just like to use that. Any suggestions, as to where I could go to find a solution like this that is affordable?
Thank you for your suggestions….
What accounting system do you use? If you use Quickbooks you can set it up directly through there. Otherwise I would google it and just pick a provider. The bank account shouldn’t be an issue, as long as you have one to deposit the money into you should be good. Good luck!
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What are some good companies to open up a Merchant Account for my business?
I am in the process of opening my companies website to the public but I need a Merchant Account in order to charge customers for there orders during check out. I am sure there are numerous Merchant Companies out there to choose from but I want to be sure I pick the right one for my company. I am not sure how many transactions I will have per month because the business if very new but over time the amount of transactions will increase over time. I know that some Merchant services charge you on an estimated amount of transactions per month, and if you do not reach that level you will be charge additional fees.
If someone could give me some helpful information on what Merchant Companies are better than others, who has good rates? no monthly fees? cheaper monthly fees? etc…
As much information on this topic would be appreciate, even if you can point me in the right direction I would be appreciated.
Thank you for your time
Check with your bank. Most banks offer Merchant Account services, and if you have an account, you may get a discounted rate.
Other than that, Paypal does offer a pretty good Merchant Account, and it’s bundled with a payment gateway (which is something else you’ll need if you want to accept credit cards online, along with an SSL certificate).
Probably the largest & safest provider is Authorize.net. Most of the decent Merchant Service providers are just resellers for them, so it might pay to check with them directly, first.
We are starting up a business, and as everyone knows credit cards are very common. We have no idea how to go about searching for credit card terminals, the going rate per transaction or anything about the process. Does anybody know how to get further info? I would really appreciate it. Thanks.
Terminals and processing are two separate issues. You may decide to purchase your terminal from your processor, but make sure that it suits your needs and that it is priced competitively. A nice standard choice for a retail endeavor is the Omni 3750. It is universally certified by nearly all merchant processing companies and offers many upgrade options including IP, gift card, smartcard and more. It’s really a workhorse. If you decide to go in another direction, make sure that the equipment you purchase is not proprietary and allows you the flexibility of being used by muliple service providers. Another option altogether is to set up a POS system or other processing software on your network or PC.
As to actual processing, this is an excerpt from an educational article I wrote for a local merchant group. Merchant processing isn’t really exciting, so it is kind of dry, but it should help you ask the right questions when you look to make a decision on a new processor.
Visa and MasterCard, the card associations, receive the majority of the fees that merchants pay for their processing services. The remainder of the fees, or the margin, is what the merchant processor receives. The card associations have designated over 240 different card categories that each merchant processor must recognize and process. Every merchant processor, no matter how big or small, is charged the same rates and fees by the card associations and every merchant processor differentiates each card category utilizing exactly the same card category name as designated by the card associations.
The card categories are designated in the following manner:
1.) Industry – Retail, Restaurant, Hotel, Government, Utility, Service Industry, Gas Station, Supermarket, etc.
2.) Type of Card – Personal Visa or MasterCard, Visa or MasterCard Debit, Visa Rewards, MasterCard World, Commercial Visa, Corporate MasterCard, etc.
3.) Method of Processing – Face-to-Face (swipe), Mail Order/Telephone Order, Key Entered, E-Commerce, etc.
4.) Processing Efficiency – Address Verification, Authorization/Settle Match, Timeliness of Settlement, etc.
These categories are as diverse as they seem. If a cardholder uses the same card to buy something from a retail establishment, lunch at a restaurant and pay their electric bill, all three of these transactions will be designated as a separate card and rate category. If a retail establishment accepts two different types of cards (ex. – a Visa Debit Card and a Visa Rewards Card) for a purchase of the exact same amount, both of these transactions will be designated as a separate card and rate category. The same is true for a Face-to-Face transaction as opposed to a telephone order. Furthermore, if a merchant does take a telephone order and doesn’t enter the required cardholder information, the transaction will be downgraded to a higher priced card and rate category than a properly executed telephone order.
So what does all of this mean to you?
For many merchants, the hardest thing to do is accept the fact that the merchant processing system, to some extent, simply is what it is. There really are that many card categories. There really are that many different rates and fees. Your merchant processor deals with and manages this system – they do not have the power to change it. Any merchant processor who claims to be dealing with a better or more advantageous system than other processors isn’t being honest.
Sure, some merchant processors offer a simplified statement format with bundled categories, but only to keep from disclosing individual rates. The simpler the statement format the less a merchant knows about what their true credit card processing costs are or should be. A simple statement also makes it very difficult to perform an accurate comparison to other programs. For many merchant processors, their most successful customer retention tool is their customer’s complete inability to understand their services.
One of the posted answers is a great example of this issue. If Visa and MasterCard charge the exact same amount to every processor for every transaction, why would a merchant pay a higher amount depending on how they identify themselves? (To the author’s credit he reveals this nuance of his company’s pricing structure) Your profile will dictate what your effective rate should be and a merchant processor should be able to help you identify this. Make sure that you are not penalized for accepting cards outside of your normal channels.
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