The Little Black Book of Online Business: 1001 Insider Resources Every Business Owner Needs

Chapter 45. Merchant Accounts

In order to process credit card payments, you need a credit card merchant account. Setting up one of these used to be an expensive and difficult endeavor, but now it's much easier.

Once you have an account, you need to follow all the rules, because if you're ever put on the "terminated merchants" list, you'll have almost no chance of getting another one. In fact, it's a good idea to have multiple merchant accounts and multiple payment gateway accounts so that if you have problems with one, you can quickly switch your web site to the other.

These companies can get you set up with a merchant account and a payment gateway quickly and with a minimum of hassle. I have used MerchantExpress myself and have had clients use this company with good success as well.

http://www.merchantexpress.com/

http://www.charge.com/

http://www.ipowerpay.com/

SIDE NOTE Just for clarification—a payment gateway is separate from your merchant account. The gateway sits between your web site and your merchant account—when a payment request comes in through your e-commerce software, the payment gateway gets the approval from the credit card network and tells your system to proceed with the order processing. At the end of each day, it settles the transactions with the network, and the funds are deposited a few days later in the bank account tied to your merchant account.

Currently, iPowerPay is developing a reputation as the merchant account provider of choice for people who will ...