Online Credit Card Processing

Getting a Merchant Account

Major banks usually offer merchant account services, but many times they will not approve home-based businesses or internet-only businesses. It never hurts to stop by your local branch and see what their policies are. Some people prefer to handle their business finances with a local bank that they trust. For example, at Wells Fargo, you need a business checking account, a credit check, a detailed application.

Yahoo Small Business web hosting offers a choice of several merchant account providers - just fill out the application form when you sign up.

MerchantWarehouse offers merchant accounts with no application fees. They have competitive transaction rates, low monthly fees. Sample fees: 2.4% discount rate, 25 cents per transaction, monthly fees of $29.

Card Services International - they generally approve new internet merchant accounts in 24 hours. They have free account and gateway setup, free shopping card setup, and free reprogramming of terminals if you need it. From their website: "Now you can be approved to accept credit cards today and have a live merchant account in 24 hours. Applying online for our Internet processing software has never been easier. The entire application process is done online in less than 10 minutes and with our digital signature approval process; we do not need a physical signature. We deposit funds directly into your existing bank account."

PayPal also offer a simple interface for accepting credit card payment for PayPal members (part of Ebay now, with 10s of millions of customers). From their website: "Accept all major forms of payment. Get features comparable to merchant accounts and gateways – at a lower cost. Accept credit cards, bank transfers, debit cards, and more. Customers shop on your website and pay on PayPal. This is an easy, quick way to start accepting credit cards online. A simple integration into your shopping cart allows your customers to pay securely and easily." There are no setup fees, and discount rates are as low as 1.9%.

MerchantExperts.com - they use authorize.net for secure payment gateway, which works with more than 120 shopping cart solutions. They offer discount rates as low as 1.3%.

WorldPay - They approve over 90% of applicants. They work with most shopping cart software, including this large list: ClickandBuild, WebLogic's BEA Systems, IBM's Websphere Pro, WebStore's eXtropia, ClickandBuild, AceFlex's ICN Software, Ardeo's Shop in a box, ShopFitter, Sage's WebTrader, Apoogee, Cactusoft, ClickPresent's ClickCart Pro, Cybershop UK, Dansie Shopping Cart, EMerchantPro, EROL2, EvolveStore 2000, RedCup's iDomainCart & iHostingCart, Inline Internet Systems's Inline iHTML, Jshop v3.3, Mamut, Akopia's Minivend, Miva Merchant, PDG's Shopping Cart, QDCat, Bitwise Software's Qhost, RealCart, The Floyd Consultancy's Shop, 3D3's ShopFactory, Mals eCommerce, Shopping Cart 2000, Awesume Interactive's VIPCart, Virtual Programming's VP-ASP 3.0, WebStore's eXtropia, Web Widgets, MDG Computer Services Inc's WS4D, Cows, Cyrona's Transaction Gold Plus, Netcetera's NetStore, ShopCreator, ShopMaster. From their website: "Payment Processing Service: WorldPay offer an Internet Merchant Account and payment processing service in one package: our WorldDirect service. The combination of an IMA and multi-currency payment processing is not easy to find. WorldDirect can save you time and effort, by providing the complete internet payment solution through one service provider."

There are also a number of 3rd party credit card processing companies that will use THEIR merchant account to process your sale, but they take a much bigger transaction cost - 7-15% in most cases. Many smaller companies outside the US use these services since it is harder for them to get a merchant account in their countries. Some of these companies are: CCBill, CCNow, Clickbank, RegNow, and Verza.