Simple Pointers On Researching Merchant Account Services
Tuesday, April 14th, 2009The following are some ideas on researching reliable merchant account services:
- If you believe you have found the perfect merchant account provider because the discount rate is very low, the application processing is free, and approval is guaranteed then you’re probably making a mistake. You sign up for one of these low-discount, overnight-approval a/c providers. Then, several weeks after your enterprise information has been reviewed you receive your real discount rates, transaction fees, and other fees associated with your a/c which are nowhere near the ‘economical’ or ‘free’ plan you thought you signed up for.
- Don’t expect to trot down to your neighborhood bank and receive credit-card processing a/c services because they most probably are not available. There are many online credit card cc processing account services that do offer this service however and they will likely be your best bet.
- Things to avoid, if you can: a) Expensive credit-card processing softwares rental or hire-purchase. b) Monthly fees. c) High discounts (the % of your sales they keep). d) Fat fees up front (anything over $500 is a joke). e) Salesmen calling you up with a scripted pitch. f) Getting foisted with hiring their shopping cart software as well. Also if they want a down-payment, and the size of their application fee. And the usual monthly minimums, discounts etc.
- If your ecommerce credit-card processing a/c is terminated for reasons of fraud, you will find it very hard to get another one. Effectively, you go on a blacklist. The good news is that most gateway services now have good fraud protection. Still, vigilance is necessary. If an order seems suspicious, a bit too good to be true, it probably is.
- If you want to sell on the internet, you need to accept credit-cards. To accept credit cards, you need a credit-card processing account, or access to one. There’re two ways of getting this: Get your own credit card processing a/c, or ‘pimp’ off somebody else’s.
- Third-party factoring sites have to be very strict; they are answerable to their own credit card processing a/c provider. Too many bogus orders and they go out of business. This is why third-party factoring services like 2Checkout are very useful to a greenhorn merchant: fraud prevention. They can screen out suspicious orders.
- Most vendors would like to think they can sell worldwide. The reality is most of the world is impoverished; MOST countries can’t afford your products. So some citizens try to get them illicitly. A smart businessman would ban most of the world from accessing his cart and only accept orders from the USA, Australia, Canada, Western Europe and New Zealand, and his home country. Harsh, but you’ll sleep better at night.
I hope these few handy tips will be of some use to you in checking out effective merchant account services.
About the author: Niccolo Svengali is an author for merchant account providers and contents insurance websites in London in the UK.