Merchant Account Comparison - A Quick Guide To Compare Merchant Accounts

Taking credit card orders is massively important to any business wanting to successfully sell goods and services on the Internet. Back in the early days of the Internet it was accepted that using credit cards for Internet purchases was not a good idea, because it was trying to apply a dirt-world system to the Internet. Lots of businesses tried to offer "micro payment" currencies eg "beenz", but none of the e-currencies took off. The truth is, ten years on from the people starting to sell on the web, still typing in credit card numbers to buy online and so accepting credit cards when offering goods online is still hugely important.

There are basically two ways to accept credit cards online. Let's compare merchant accounts. Businesses can either apply for their own merchant account, which allows the business to process credit cards via a bank gateway, or the business can elect to use the services of a third party processor, who processed the credit card charges on behalf of the merchant. Obtaining a full merchant account costs more initially, but has smaller per item charges. Using a third party payment service costs less upfront, but has more expensive per item costs.

Making the decision as to whether or not to go for a full credit card processing account or use a third party service provider is only a question of crunching the numbers. Consider these different business types and compare merchant account benefits...

In most cases, merchants who are already trading locally and simply want to expand online will be more suited to getting a merchant card processing account. Most likely, It's most likely that they will already have a real world merchant card processing account and will tailor that account to also do "MOTO", which is "Mail Order Telephone Order" processing and only means that the cardholder is not there at the time of purchase.

For micro businesses starting to sell products online, it is think about testing their sales using a third party payment service. The advantage to the new business is that there's hardly any initial cost which means they can test their business model easily and cheaply. If sales boom, they can think about decrease the per-transaction fees by getting their own merchant account. If sales are poor, they can quickly leave the marketplace without having spent a lot of cash to get their own merchant card processing account.