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Credit Cards Processing Options
How to Get a Merchant Account; How to Process Credit Cards; Methods of
Accepting Credit Cards; Getting a Merchant Account; Selecting a Merchant Account
Provider; Get a Credit Card Swiper; Point-of-Sale systems
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How to Accept Credit Cards
In order to process credit cards for your business, you need:
- Merchant account from a merchant account provider
- To decide how credit card processing will fit into your business
- To decide which credit cards you want to accept.
Merchant Account Fees
You can expect to pay the following types of fees to your Merchant Account
Provider
- Setup fee (in the $10s to $100s depending upon the solution)
- Monthly fee (in the $10s to $100s per month)
- Percent (%) of each transaction (usually between 2% and 10%)
- Processing fee (usually less than $1.00)
The Merchant Account rates and fees will depend upon factors such as:
- Duration in Business. The longer you're company has been in
business, the better. This illustrates to merchant account providers that
your business is stable and can be expected to stay in business.
- Transaction Volume. The more transactions you expect to be making
generally decreases fees. It's like buying transactions "in
bulk."
- Business Risk. If the industry you're serving or kind of
business you are doing has any kind of financial risk to the Merchant
Account Provider, rates and fees will be higher.
- Processing Method. Merchant Account Providers favor processing
methods that offer greater security to the customer. Paper is less secure
and digital processing is more secure. Facility on site processing is more
secure and off site processing (e.g. tradeshows, traveling) is less
secure.
- Credit Cards Accepted. Visa and Mastercard are the 2 standard
credit cards offered by default by most Merchant Account Providers. Adding
American Express and Discover will generally result in additional fees
because the users of these cards are higher risk.
Recommendations
for Various Business Types
What payment processing solution is right for you? See
which business type sounds most like your business
venture and your offering:
Independent Business Professionals
You are a business professional, a consultant or coach specializing in a
business service. The largest part of your income comes from projects with
your clients, consulting services and speaking engagements. You may also
have a book, books or ebooks, CDs or DVDs, kits or inventions that you take
on tour with you to sell after your presentations.
RECOMMENDATIONS: If you can have the clients you do projects for
pay by check, encourage this so that you don't need to sacrifice so
much of your income with merchant processing fees. Offer a credit card
payment option only to those from whom you are:
- requiring prepayment to begin work
- providing occasional hourly consulting for
- selling products to, either from your web site, over the phone or in
person
- having difficulty obtaining payment from at all
For credit card processing, consider the:
Consider other options as your volume grows.
Small Business Product Boutique
You have a small brick-and-mortar business with a storefront in your home
town. You occasionally travel with your inventory to shows, fairs,
tradeshows, expos. Since your clientele exist primarily of consumers, they
will expect the ability to pay with a credit card.
For credit card processing, consider the:
As your enterprise grows and sales go up in volume, consider options
provided by Wireless Merchant
Account Providers. Offering a client a printed receipt quickly will
improve your customer's experience.
Business Service Storefront / Brick-&-Mortar / Point of Sale
You have a small brick-and-mortar business with a storefront. Your
inventory or offering is bound to your facility. Since your clientele exist
primarily of consumers, they will expect the ability to pay with a credit
card.
For credit card processing, consider the:
As your enterprise grows, as sales go up in volume and as you expand into
additional facilities, consider options provided by Electronic
Merchant Account Providers.
2-part, carbonless, credit card, credit card slips, credit card receipts,
carbonless credit card slips, carbonless paper, carbonless, creditcard slips,
creditcard receipts, 2-part, bankcard sales drafts. credit card sales forms,
bankcard imprinter sales drafts, credit card imprinter sales forms, creditcard
imprinter receipts, credit card manual imprinter long sales slips,
sales receipts, credit card swiper, credit card terminal,
credit card equipment, credit card printers, creditcard printers, point-of-sale
terminals
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Inexpensive
equipment ($20-30)
Carbon forms are messy
