Scott

I'm thinking about taking credit card payments shortly, but I don't know how to go about doing it. I was wondering if you could please recommend me some merchants that I should look into? Also, what kind of rates will I be paying and what should I look out for when selecting a merchant to use?

st@rsky

Everything below is my own experience. Different companies have a different process and also take into consideration that this is with a UK bank rather than US, but here's the basic info:

We tried to get setup with Lloyds TSB Cardnet.
http://www.lloydstsbcardnet.com

They wanted £250 setup cost + an annual fee (yearly), 3% Base rate charge for CC transactions, You can't take AMEX over the net, it has to be done via phone (ie: You would need a terminal and a direct line to lloyds to then take the CC numbers and then ring up to get the card verified and charged, lengthy process and time consuming.) Amex is setup separate from the standard account, simply because you have to get Amex setup with Amex, rather than with Lloyds. Amex wanted roughly 2%-4% on top of lloyds 3% base rate.. (You can't setup with Amex until lloyds have your account setup up.)

Further to that if you wanted to deal in multiple currencies, (ie: Dealing with the US) you would need a separate account. So one account for UK to UK transactions, and then another for UK to US. This is so that you can take into consideration the currency conversion ect.. (Oh yeah, dealing in a different currency is subject to 0.5% increase in base rate charge.)

Dealing in multiple currencies means more cost as well, simply just taking into affect the exchange rate.

Before any of this is possible you need to submit a business plan, objectives and estimates of turnover and estimated profit levels. After that your account is subject to "Risk Assessment", if it fails that then no account.

Finally, if you don't use your account at least once a month they charge you a minimum or £30.

So in conclusion, having chatted with the Rep for quite a while, a merchant account (with lloyds anyway) is more for business to retail, rather than business to business. Wholesale deals (as they involve more risk than retail) will probably not get through the "Risk Assessment" due to the high volumes involved and rather risky process.

Any more questions that I haven't covered then I am more than happy to advise, do bear in mind it is a highly complex and frustrating process.

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Anthony
Wholesale Helper :: Starting a Business :: Wholesalers :: Wholesale Forums

Max

Nice post, Anthony! Good read.

Scott, how many payments and approximately how large would the payments be? If you are only receiving a few payments per month, you should look into Paypal's CC system or 2CO. Otherwise, you would have to look into a "real" merchant.

Spencer deals with them all the time, I'm sure he can make a few suggestions.

Check out the Merchant Account FAQ.

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Max - NBT Advisor

st@rsky

Ahh no probs.. Glad it was useful..

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Anthony
Wholesale Helper :: Starting a Business :: Wholesalers :: Wholesale Forums

stevo

Yes, for small payments just use paypal or similar.
Its really not viable at all having a merchant account if you are earning say under $1000 a week.

At that point (soon i hope!) I will stop using paypal and find myself a merchant.

Super Mod

There's a lot of stuff you want to look at when considering a merchant account. You want to first be sure that you read the contract over carefully. There are usually some red flags that you want to be wary of such as hidden fees if you cancel. You'll probably be most concerned with getting a decent transaction rate, monthly fee, and sign up fee. These will definitely decrease as you do more and more transactions with the merchant, so don't be too scared when they're very high at first. Make sure that you discuss a decrease in price as time goes on. Let me know if you have any specific questions.

Smith

That's not necessarily true. You may need to have a merchant, because your customers only use credit cards and wish to do so through a secure page on your website. This is one reason why you may want to have a merchant account even if you're not doing a large volume.