A
merchant account is required to conduct business (process credit cards) via the
Internet. Without this account, a retailer can't accept credit card payments
online. There are many types of best credit processing companies that provide
merchant accounts and one should compare several providers before choosing one.
You don't want to pick the wrong provider - they may delay processing your
transactions (bogus claims), refuse to payout funds generated by sales
(fraudulent behavior), or even steal funds generated by sales (unauthorized
withdrawals).
Internet
merchants need either an e-commerce merchant account or an internet merchant
account. An e-commerce merchant account can handle both credit card and
electronic check processing whereas an internet merchant account only processes
credit cards online. However, just because you have an e-commerce merchant
account does not mean that you can accept electronic check transactions. Your
provider should give this capability, but it is not always available at all
providers.
Some companies
specialize in providing merchant accounts for small businesses and act as credit card processing brokers. Such services
are usually more expensive than larger companies which may offer cheaper rates
because they can negotiate volume discounts with credit card processing
companies or banks. However, one does not need to be very big - these days even
a small e-commerce site can generate quite substantial monthly sales volume. It
is obvious what the result of such growth will be - higher charges due to an increase
in transaction fees' percentage.
One of the most
important things to look for when choosing a credit card processing company is
how many different types of transactions they can process. These days,
companies that provide credit card processing should have no problems with
accepting the latest standards - Visa, MasterCard, Amex, and Discover. Also,
there are so-called 'virtual' credit cards that will also work - virtual credit card terminals are assigned
to customers by merchants/processors rather than being issued by banks or other
financial institutions so it makes sense to use them if one has an internet
merchant account.
The main
criteria used when selecting a provider are transaction fees charged per sale
(flat-rate vs percentage), monthly fee that may be added on top of transaction
fees plus the number of additional features available.
