Merchant Account Provider- Accepting Credit Cards On Your Website

Merchant account and service companies are plentiful on the Internet. In Industry terms, these companies are called merchant account providers or Independent Sales Organizations. Make sure you research these companies before you pay for their e-commerce certified merchant services. Brokers make money by either an upfront fee, an application fee, or a per transaction fee. Their main goal is to place you with a bank or company experienced with Internet transactions that accepts your credit history.

Gateway

The final piece to setting up a merchant account to accept online payment is the gateway that connects you to the transaction clearinghouse. There are three common gateways:

Card Swipe Machines

The machinery next to nearly every checkout register in the country. After the credit card is swiped, an authorization code displays, and is usually printed on a transaction slip. The authorization comes from the clearinghouse that the store's bank contracts with, and it effectively assures valid payment to the merchant when the customer signs on the dotted line. This method is not needed for pure-play dot-com businesses.

Desktop Software

For e-businesses, desktop software can be used as the transaction gateway. Once you receive the number via phone, mail, or email the merchant manually enters the numbers and payment amounts into the computer software, and transmits the list over the Internet to the clearinghouse designated by the bank. In a few moments, the clearinghouse responds with a list of good card and bad cards to allow the merchant to proceed as necessary. This software solution works better than the card swipe machine, but may not work for large volume stores. It also requires re-keying data from each order into your computer, which can lead to user errors and can be time consuming.

Real-Time Web Gateways

There are several payment gateways to the transaction clearinghouse that can authorize and validate payments while the customer is still online. These gateways provide a walkway from your website to a different modem channel to check the status in real-time, a very complicated process if you were to do it on your own from step one. If you wish to use a real time gateway, which is most common with ecommerce shopping card software, make sure it is compatible with the system you are going to use. Our MonsterCommerce shopping carts are compatible with most major merchant accounts, including Monster Merchant Accounts.

Costs

The cost of setting up and maintaining a merchant account to accept credit cards on your website depends on who you choose to provide your merchant account services and how many middlemen you go through. If you choose to use the MC shopping cart software, our organization will waive the set-up fee and the application fee for your merchant account.