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A direct merchant account amounts to a special permission from
credit card issuers that allows you to process credit cards as payment for your
merchandise or services. Credit card issuers have certain requirements and standards for every merchant who accepts credit cards as payment for sales of their products or
services. To get a merchant account, you must meet those requirements.
The process begins with finding an agent - a liaison between you and the credit card
processor. They will take an application from you and submit it to a credit card
processor. Your personal credit history, business record, type of merchandise or
service, expected volume of business and the typical charge backs for your business
will be examined carefully. You may have send them photos of your office and
building. A merchant account is thereafter issued or denied. Some agents charge
an application fee and set up fee. Others charge only a set up fee.
After you get a merchant account your business will be
authorized to accept MasterCard and Visa. American Express and Discover are
usually included free, but you have to ask the agent to add them to your
merchant account. You can always go to the American Express or Discover websites
and set this up yourself for a minimal monthly charge. You can also add approval
services that allow you to process checks on line. In addition, you will pay the
processor a monthly statement fee for the merchant account, a percentage of each
sale and/or a per transaction fee for each sale.
When you make a sale, you will give the credit card processor
the card info and they will approve or deny each sale based upon info supplied
by the credit card issuers. You can submit this info via the web, by telephone,
by swiping the card into a terminal or by using software. The processor has a
different fee structure for each of these methods. Check the list below for the
typical associated costs.
If you already have a merchant account for your
brick and mortar store, contact your bank or processor to see if you can add
Internet sales or MOTO- (mail order/telephone order) to your account. We can configure your shopping cart to work with
any existing merchant account or gateway set up.If you do not have a Merchant Account or do not wish to pay the associated monthly fees,
you can set up your own or we can set up
a Virtual Merchant Account or Instant
Merchant Account for you with a third party credit card processor. These
companies take the credit card info you input and send it to a processor who in
turn submits it to the credit card issuers. For a per item fee, they act as a middle man for you. In
essence, providing you with access to their merchant account so that you do not
need to have one of your own. Third party processors may or may not charge you a
monthly fee with per transaction and most of them claim to hold a percentage of
the sales in reserve to cover charge backs.
Below
are typical charges for a direct merchant account:
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