Accepting credit cards is the only easy way to collect payments online. The alternatives are to have someone print something and mail you a check or something like egold which really isn't a solid solution nor is it convenient. Anything but credit cards online will cause you to lose sales. It's a convenient way to accept payments and one that you can get without a major hassle.
The discount rate on a typical credit card merchant account is about 2.1% to 2.5%. This is what's called a qualified discount rate. Paypal doesn't break these down into qualified or non-qualified rates, they just charge a flat rate of about 2.9% or so. The downside to this is that if you're a merchant accepting transactions mostly from individual consumers, you're overpaying on about 80% or more of your transactions.
Traditional merchant accounts have two other "buckets" into which they categorize transactions. One of these is called the mid-qualified which are typically the "rewards" cards or other credit cards associated with cash back or frequent flyer miles, etc. The other "bucket" is non-qualified for cards that are either government or corporate credit cards. There are some other reasons transactions may fall into these other pricing categories and that may be how long it takes for the funds to capture after they're authorized. Most merchants never have to worry about this because the charges are captured in the same transaction in which they were authorized.
Each transaction has a flat cost associated with it when calculating pricing. These per transaction fees are usually about $.20 to $.30. There is also an AVS fee which if you're processing online transactions through a gateway such as Authorize.Net, you'll have this fee as well. This is usually about $.05 or so. A competitive rate would be $.25 or less including the AVS. Paypal charges a flat $.30 per transaction.
Your more traditional merchant account has what are called "batch header fees" which is a daily processing fees. Transactions are batched together, usually daily. Each of these batches is assessed a $.25 batch header fee. So if you process batches every day for 30 days, you'd have about $8 or so worth of "batches" that you'd be paying for. This is one small advantage of Paypal merchant services is that they don't have this batch header fee. This is a fee that you should be able to negotiate with your service provider.
Merchant accounts have monthly fees. Paypal has a monthly fee if you use their merchant services. If you're just accepting payments from other Paypal customers, you won't have a monthly fee. But if you use them as you would a traditional merchant account where the payments can come from either Paypal customers or individual cardholders without a Paypal account, you'll have a $25 monthly fee. Traditional merchant accounts can be as low as $10 to $15 per month including the gateway fee. If you're an internet business just getting off the ground, try to get your monthly minimum waived. This is usually a $25 minimum and can be pricey especially when you're just getting started.
Processing transactions through the internet also implies that you'll have additional fees involved. This is usually through what's called a gateway which is a company or software that will facilitate getting the transaction information from your customer to the bank for processing and is done online. Authorize.net is probably one of the more popular gateways that you've heard of. There are a lot more, but only a handful that are compatible with just about every shopping cart solution out there. If you do decide on Authorize.net, plan on a setup fee of about $100 or so. There are plenty of companies that give this setup away for free, but most of them also charge more on the monthly or will charge you the equivalent in an annual fee.
Credit card merchant accounts are worth having and with an internet based business pretty much your only real option. There may be a few other ways to get around having to get a credit card merchant account, but not without the expense of losing customers and sales. Make it easy on your customers and yourself by getting setup with an internet merchant account. This can be done easily and without a major hassle. Just follow the above guidelines for pricing and you'll be fine. Check each contract before you commit. Plan on getting setup about 1-2 weeks before you need to go live. This will give you 2-3 days to get approved and a week or so of testing before you go live. - 15224
The discount rate on a typical credit card merchant account is about 2.1% to 2.5%. This is what's called a qualified discount rate. Paypal doesn't break these down into qualified or non-qualified rates, they just charge a flat rate of about 2.9% or so. The downside to this is that if you're a merchant accepting transactions mostly from individual consumers, you're overpaying on about 80% or more of your transactions.
Traditional merchant accounts have two other "buckets" into which they categorize transactions. One of these is called the mid-qualified which are typically the "rewards" cards or other credit cards associated with cash back or frequent flyer miles, etc. The other "bucket" is non-qualified for cards that are either government or corporate credit cards. There are some other reasons transactions may fall into these other pricing categories and that may be how long it takes for the funds to capture after they're authorized. Most merchants never have to worry about this because the charges are captured in the same transaction in which they were authorized.
Each transaction has a flat cost associated with it when calculating pricing. These per transaction fees are usually about $.20 to $.30. There is also an AVS fee which if you're processing online transactions through a gateway such as Authorize.Net, you'll have this fee as well. This is usually about $.05 or so. A competitive rate would be $.25 or less including the AVS. Paypal charges a flat $.30 per transaction.
Your more traditional merchant account has what are called "batch header fees" which is a daily processing fees. Transactions are batched together, usually daily. Each of these batches is assessed a $.25 batch header fee. So if you process batches every day for 30 days, you'd have about $8 or so worth of "batches" that you'd be paying for. This is one small advantage of Paypal merchant services is that they don't have this batch header fee. This is a fee that you should be able to negotiate with your service provider.
Merchant accounts have monthly fees. Paypal has a monthly fee if you use their merchant services. If you're just accepting payments from other Paypal customers, you won't have a monthly fee. But if you use them as you would a traditional merchant account where the payments can come from either Paypal customers or individual cardholders without a Paypal account, you'll have a $25 monthly fee. Traditional merchant accounts can be as low as $10 to $15 per month including the gateway fee. If you're an internet business just getting off the ground, try to get your monthly minimum waived. This is usually a $25 minimum and can be pricey especially when you're just getting started.
Processing transactions through the internet also implies that you'll have additional fees involved. This is usually through what's called a gateway which is a company or software that will facilitate getting the transaction information from your customer to the bank for processing and is done online. Authorize.net is probably one of the more popular gateways that you've heard of. There are a lot more, but only a handful that are compatible with just about every shopping cart solution out there. If you do decide on Authorize.net, plan on a setup fee of about $100 or so. There are plenty of companies that give this setup away for free, but most of them also charge more on the monthly or will charge you the equivalent in an annual fee.
Credit card merchant accounts are worth having and with an internet based business pretty much your only real option. There may be a few other ways to get around having to get a credit card merchant account, but not without the expense of losing customers and sales. Make it easy on your customers and yourself by getting setup with an internet merchant account. This can be done easily and without a major hassle. Just follow the above guidelines for pricing and you'll be fine. Check each contract before you commit. Plan on getting setup about 1-2 weeks before you need to go live. This will give you 2-3 days to get approved and a week or so of testing before you go live. - 15224
About the Author:
Brian Armstrong is a professional merchant account executive. He's been setting up credit card merchant accounts since 2002 helping internet businesses just like yours accept credit cards. Brian specializes in ecommerce merchant account setup. You can reach Brian toll free at 800-893-9540.
