Credit Card Merchant Account
Five of the best sites about merchant accounts, which allow your business to accept credit cards. Know of another site that should be listed here? Leave your suggestion at the bottom of this page. (Related searches: Electronic Payment Processing, Shopping Cart Software, Business Credit Card)
1. Chase Paymentech - Provides merchant accounts and related services for online Internet, phone, and retail credit card transactions. (www.chasepaymentech.com)
2. “Merchant Account” at Wikipedia - Still not quite sure what a merchant account is? Go here for an overview of how these accounts work. Warning: It may confuse you even more. (en.wikipedia.org)
3. Advanced Merchant Services - Another of the many service providers that would like to set you up with a merchant account for e-commerce activities or offline credit card processing. Go here to compare their prices with others. (www.merchant-accounts.com)
4. Charge.com - Long-time merchant account provider offering credit card processing. Their site says that you fill out an online application today and you can be accepting credit cards on your Web site in 24 hours. You can also get merchant accounts and related equipment for in-person credit card processing situations such as retail, restaurant, etc. (www.charge.com)
5. Wells Fargo Merchant Card Processing - Credit card processing services from a banking institution you’ll likely feel comfortable with. (www.wellsfargo.com)
3 Comments Add your own
1. Dat To March 4th, 2009 at 6:53 pm
Regardless of who you contact as a new business owner. Do a little research on common terms and usual fees associated with payment processing/ payment acceptance/ merchant accounts/ merchant services/ merchant processing. Many names. Don’t be fool be super cheap or free offers. Run away from high pressure sales tactics because a good deal today should be a good deal next week. Have your list of questions ready. Run away if they don’t like answering questions or try to make you feel dumb or confused by asking them.
2. Shay March 23rd, 2009 at 2:42 pm
I’ve been in this industry for 8 years and have worked with three different merchant account providers. I currently work with Merchant Warehouse. And while I suppose I am biased when saying this, but many of the sites you listed aren’t really the “best.”
Without naming any names, there are some of my competitors on this list that is not the most ethical, forcing their customers into long term contracts with shoddy services. While another one on the list outsources their business to a different merchant account provider.
Either way, simply offering two sentences about a provider is really not enough. The credit card processing industry is extremely complex and confusing and its hard to base everything on a single price, rate, or product (which is fairly homogeneous anyway) because that’s just not how it works. There are so many different factors that makes up a merchant account.
Choosing a merchant account provider is one of the most important decision any business owner would make, but seems to be one of those things that aren’t thought up until the very last minute before their business opens. Its a little obscene at the lack of forethought business owners seem to put on choosing a merchant account provider when it has such a huge impact on their bottom line.
So I suggest anyone who is looking for a merchant account to really do your research.
Here are some things to think about. Merchant accounts providers tend to advertise a “low rate” which only makes up a tiny bit of the overall costs since there is an assortment of fees associated with a merchant account. Make sure you are not signing into a long term contract. The fees and discount rate for a merchant account is not like a mortgage. It is not fixed. If you’re in a contract with a rate that started off low, they can and WILL raise the rates and slap on hidden fees. If you leave, you’re stuck with a hefty cancellation fee. So its best that you don’t sign into a contract to begin with.
Make a list of companies you want to work with. Be sure to check them out in the BBB. Before calling, make sure you have a long list of questions to ask and weigh the pros and cons for each company. Good luck!
3. Dan Meyer June 12th, 2009 at 9:28 am
Merchant Processing
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