How To Accept Credit Cards
If you plan to do business online, then your website will need to accept credit cards. For many, the idea of applying for a merchant account sounds like a daunting task, but the truth is that building an online store is incredibly easy these days.
What Is A Merchant Account?
Merchant accounts are bank accounts that make it possible for a business to accept a credit card and/or a debit card as payment. While the accounts are offered through ordinary banks, they are not the same as the checking or savings account you have with your local bank. A merchant account is more like a contract between the bank providing the account and the business owner, with rules about how products or services are sold and paid for.
Domestic Merchant Account Options
A domestic merchant account may be the best option for your company. Thats because when you have an account managed by a company located in your country of residence, both you and the lender are familiar with laws and business codes that can impact the way your company operates. An offshore entity, in contrast, may be less familiar with and less observant of the rules that govern spending and payment transactions in your country.
Ever Wondered What An eCommerce Merchant Account Is?
An eCommerce merchant account can be likened to the cashier of an actual, physical store. They process payments, and eCommerce merchant accounts do the same, albeit, with added flair and whole lot more features.
Merchant Accounts: What They Can Do For You
Congratulations! You created an impulse in a customer to buy your product. One small catch.
High Risk Merchant Account Red Flags to Look Out For
A recent national publication in the United States has revealed that at least 60 percent of online consumers have become quite worried over the prevalence of identity theft related to online purchases. This fact is really no surprise considering that the recent estimate on actual money lost to identity theft now amounts to USD56 billion.
Applying For Merchant Accounts
For most businesses, a merchant account is essential to economic growth. Providing business owners with a way to accept credit and/or debit cards, gift cards and other forms of electronic payments, merchant accounts are commonly referred to simply as credit card or payment processing. As a general rule, any merchant who accepts payment in exchange for goods or services must apply for a merchant account if they wish to accept electronic payments. Surprisingly, however, not everyone is approved for merchant accounts. One example of a potential problem could be a business owner who has little or no credit or even a poor credit history may find it difficult to obtain a merchant account.
Merchant Account Fees To Business Owners
As a business owner, when you set up a merchant account to enable your customers the ability to pay for your products or services using credit cards (or debit cards with a Visa or Mastercard Logo), you will have some fees associated with the credit card transactions.
Credit-Card Merchant Account Services
Did you know that could possibly multiply your sales receipts within a matter of weeks or months? Of course, other factors will play a role in the overall success of this strategy, but many company owners claim that the simple step of accepting credit card payments increased their income dramatically in a relatively short amount of time. That is why you need to know more about the benefits of credit card merchant services.
Pawn Shop Merchant Account: Why Should You Get One?
Perhaps one of oldest institutions in the financial world is the pawn shop. During medieval times, people would have no place to borrow money fast and easy except from pawn shops. Pawn shops allow them to make an emergency loan without going through hefty paper work. Ironically, the only thing that has changed is that people no longer need to go to a land-based pawn shop to pawn or buy goodies that have been pawned. They can easily do it online. Although comparably slow, many pawn shops today have made a leap from being merely brick and mortar to having a website of their own. The advantages far outnumber the pitfalls.
From Adult Merchant Account Experts: The Pitfalls of Running an Adult Website (Part II)
As mentioned in a previous article, there are a lot of troublesome issues a webmaster will inevitably face in the course of operating an adult pay site. These issues come in all shapes and sizes, and even the smallest detail can worsen into a big headache if you don?t know how to deal with it, so here is a little further help in dealing with the more common pitfalls bound to go in any webmaster?s way when maintaining an adult pay site.
Merchant Accounts 101: Understanding Their Role In Your Ebiz
What a Merchant Account Is
Merchant Accounts Company Stresses Importance of Payment Security
A1 Merchant Accounts, a leader in the payment processing industry, is reemphasizing the importance of payment security after the results of a recent consumer study.
Get A Credit Card Merchant Account
A card merchant account can put your business on the road to financial success. If your company is not yet accepting credit card payments, you are missing out on the powerful potential of this income stream. Many business owners who started taking credit card payments claim that their income has doubled while overhead costs have diminished. When you become eligible to receive credit card payments, you are likely to experience an increase in sales volume and chase fewer dud checks. To facilitate credit card payment, however, you will need to apply for a merchant account.
Credit Card Merchant Account Basics
Knowing which credit card merchant account to get can be very confusing. There are thousands and thousands of banks, merchant account providers and third party sales teams that can offer you all kinds of incentives.
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Increase Your Sales - Accept Credit Cards
Many people today simply prefer the convenience of paying by credit card. If you want their business, you must be able to accept their credit-card payments.
In part one of this series we will discuss why you should accept credit cards, and the basics of getting merchant status. Part two will deal with objections you might get, which credit cards to accept, and the check paying option.
Obtaining merchant status, which allows you to accept credit-card payments, might seem like an unnecessary hassle, especially for those in business where the majority of their customers pay by cash or check. But by not accepting credit-card payments, you lose sales. This is especially true if yours is a mail order business, or consulting business. Just look at the majority of business today, all of them accept credit cards, and becoming more and more popular all the time are debit cards.
As many businesses have found, up to 70 percent of people never mail the check, so accepting credit cards is crucial. When the customer places an order, he's excited and eager to buy. Faced with the prospect of sending a check, waiting for it to clear and then awaiting shipment, his interest is likely to wane. In the meantime, you lose sales.
The Basics of Merchant Status
In order to accept credit cards, you need to work with a bank that will transfer the money into your account within a day or two of the sale, and then collect the money from the customer. In return, you pay the bank a commission of 1.5 percent to 5 percent for each credit-card transaction; a set, per-transaction fee; and a setup fee. You will also have to pay monthly support or equipment-rental fees for a point-of-sale terminal—the machine used to swipe the card—depending on the contract.
The fee is based on two things, the average amount per transaction and the total volume for the year.
When you apply for merchant status, the banks evaluate your business based on its sales track record, the type of business it is, your credit record, the business's credit record and your overall financial picture.
Apply for merchant status when you get your start-up financing. This accomplishes several things. First, it shows that you've thought ahead. And you will probably have customers that you wouldn't have otherwise. In fact, some people don't pay with anything but credit cards.
Second, you show you're taking steps to minimize the time and expense involved in recovering bad debts. If someone writes a bad check, for instance, it will cost you time and money to recover the loss. If you swipe a customer's credit card through a point-of-sale terminal, you can be sure you'll get paid. The machine contacts the issuing bank to authorize the transaction and runs the account numbers through a variety of fraud-protection procedures.
In part two of this series we will deal with objections you might get, which credit cards to accept, and the check paying option.
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