Credit Card Terminals

E-Commerce Merchant Accounts
By Marcus Peterson

Every ecommerce merchant account uses a virtual terminal and a secure processing gateway that permits the credit card owner to enter his card information for use by the bank. Ecommerce merchant accounts reduce paper works, phone calls, mailing expenses labor charge and slowness of auditing. All the transactions are automatically done on your bank account.

You can either establish your own ecommerce merchant account or can avail the service of a third party who processes payments for you. Generally, third party accounts are useful for new merchants, and self owned accounts are useful for well established merchants. There are lots of banks and private merchant account providers (Map?s) offering ecommerce merchant accounts. You can also apply online. The minimum requirement is that you should have a well maintained website and a bank account.

Ecommerce merchant accounts vary widely. Some account providers charge a monthly fee, some charge weekly fee, and others charge a one time fee. You have to select an account according to the revenues generated and the current status of your business. Always look for a provider with high approval rate (more than 90%). When applying, make sure that the account can process all popular credit card payments such as Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover. If you are going for market products or services globally, it is important to apply for a multicurrency ecommerce merchant account. Always deal with a provider who offers ample protection against frauds.

Setting up an ecommerce account is very easy. The set up fee for a third party account costs around $50 and your own account can cost around $600. However, setting up of ecommerce merchant accounts through banks is not so easy, as there will be some credit checks. Usually, banks do not provide accounts for new merchants. The transaction rate can be either around 2-3% of the transacted amount or $.30 per transaction. The discount rates are usually $10 to $15 a month, and the rolling reserve can be around $20 a month.

Merchant Accounts provides detailed information on Merchant Accounts, Credit Card Merchant Accounts, Internet Merchant Accounts, About High Risk Merchant Accounts and more. Merchant Accounts is affiliated with Internet Merchant Services.

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