Accept Credit Cards with a Merchant Account

A merchant account is a relationship with a bank that allows your business to accept credit cards like Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express in addition to electronic checks and check-by-phone. You can accept payments for your products or services via credit card, the bank debits the funds from the customer and deposits them into your bank account.

Typically, there is a processor (3rd party) that is involved that takes the actual credit card information and transmits it to the Merchant Account Provider. This can be the terminal that you're familiar with at retail stores, an internet based utility, website software, phone-based terminal or other software.

The actual credit card companies make money by taking a small percentage of each transaction. The 3rd party processing companies make money by charging a per-transaction fee and monthly maintenance fee.

The Top 4 Merchant Account Providers:

Glossary:

• Setup Fee: the fee to get your Merchant Account started.
• Rates: the % of each transaction taken as fees and the per transaction fee.
• Gateway Fee: the charge for the gateway to process transactions and send them to the Merchant Account Provider.
• Monthly Minimum: the minimum amount of charges to be processed per month.
• Statement Fee: the charge for your monthly statement detailing your Merchant Account activity.