Setting Up Your Merchant Account For Online Payments

Posted on September 14, 2020 by schatzi

So, you want to accept payments online?

When it comes to setting up a merchant account for your online business, the process can be downright confusing. There’s so much more to it than simply identifying a merchant bank that can provide you with decent rates and nominal fees. Of course, you’ll want to shop around for good rates when it comes to your merchant bank but negotiating rates is just a small part of the commercial transaction cycle that you’ll need to consider.

There are several key components and services that make up the ecommerce process. Merchant accounts, payment gateways, shopping carts, processors, it all starts to get pretty complicated when you look at all of the players involved. Let’s recap the basic online payment process:

A customer visits your ecommerce website.
Customer decides to make a purchase.
The selection is added to the shopping cart.
The customer provides personal and financial details during the check out process that are recorded via a secure form.
Details submitted from the form are transmitted to a payment gateway service, which is separate from the shopping cart technology. The gateway service securely routes the information through the relevant financial networks, including your merchant bank.
If the transaction is successful, the customers’ credit card account is debited and your merchant account is credited.
Once all funds have cleared, you are then able to transfer money to your ordinary business checking account.

So, where do you start?

Well, you can shop around for the various services required and once you’ve established your providers, hope that they can all integrate with one another which is unlikely (for example, your payment gateway will need to be compatible with your shopping cart and work with your merchant account). Or, you can find a comprehensive web payment solution that can work with you to handle all of your merchant account needs. A good, ecommerce provider will offer shopping cart, payment gateway and merchant account services and the best providers are not tied to a single bank but can work with several banks allowing them to negotiate the best rates for you based on your business type and transaction history.

When shopping for the right provider, be sure that you find a PCI DSS compliant provider. PCI or the Payment Card Industry has standards for handling sensitive credit card data and if you and your provider cannot prove compliance, you may suffer additional fees imposed by the merchant bank or you could lose the ability to take credit card payment on your website altogether.

What is a Payment Gateway?

Most merchants understand the role and purpose of the shopping cart, the merchant bank and the credit card processing company but, what about the payment gateway? A payment gateway is a separate component that serves as an intermediary between the shopping cart and the financial networks involved with the transaction. The gateway is essentially a virtual version of your POS terminal. It checks for validity, encrypts transaction details, ensures that data is being sent to the correct destination and then decrypts the responses which are sent back to the shopping cart. The process is all very seamless and your customer would never directly interact with the gateway itself, only the shopping cart.

Become a Merchant Account Provider

Posted on September 2, 2020 by schatzi

Merchant account providers help provide accounts to merchants. Banks are the most well known providers of merchant accounts. Also, there are third party merchant account providers that are extremely popular with international and Internet merchants. To become a successful merchant account provider, there are a few basics one needs to understand.

The merchant account provider requires the help of at least two other entities to grant a merchant account to a client. One is an ISO (Independent Service Organization) and the other is the underwriter. An ISO normally comes from the local debt collection. Their job is to verify the risks that come with granting the merchant account. They look at the operation of the applicant, as well his history and assets. Often, ISOs are also merchant account administrators, with the power to liquidate the merchant account in the event of something going wrong. The underwriter is typically a bank. Their responsibility lies with the cardholders. They reassess the website, the merchant’s operations, and the report provided by the ISO. It is the underwriter that actually grants the merchant account to the applicant. Underwriters often request superficial and even structural changes to the merchant’s website to protect the latter’s interests.

The merchant account provider should be adept in dealing with high-risk accounts. These businesses include pharmacy accounts; adult accounts; travel accounts; telemarketing accounts, etc. They are high risk in nature because of their potential for unnecessary charge backs, legal violations, or they can simple give the merchant account provider bad publicity for accepting their kind of business.

Today, it is essential for someone wanting to become a merchant account provider to have some experience and knowledge with e-commerce doctrine, terminology and workings. Proficiency with computers is imperative.

High Risk Merchant Account Provider

Posted on August 31, 2020 by schatzi

High risk merchant account providers acts as a processing gateway that helps and protects the company from any fraudulent transaction. They help and assist client in establishing their merchant account. High risk merchant account providers are a unique type of merchant providers that are specifically trained to handle an account that has a higher or a greater fraud incident.

A business may be classified as a high risk account when it falls under categories like: unregistered business entity, unstable credit history, blacklisted by other processing companies, generates large quantity of transactions and the likes. Businesses like online gambling and adult websites are the best examples for a high risk account.

A good account provider helps and assists high risk businesses in setting up an account. It helps business owners in setting up an account internationally or anywhere in the world. The account providers are normally given the full authority to facilitate, manage and process transactions. They will act in your behalf. Aside from that, they will protect you from any fraudulent transactions.

Your information will be kept confidential. Address verification service also known as AVS is a kind of verification scheme that the account provider uses to specifically screen out clients who uses fictitious names or those who simply steal money by using other people’s account information. Using multiple credit cards is strictly prohibited by the business merchant provider because this is a sign and a strong indication of a stolen credit card.

With the help of advance technology, high risk merchant account providers can help you create and process transactions safely and securely. Normally, high risk merchant account pays higher rates or fees because the account is far more complicated as compared to the normal accounts.

However, good business merchant account providers should be able to provide protection facility, reasonable start up fees, processes transactions in real time, offers quick approval time, offers 24 hours technical support and offers diverse payment options. If you are planning to create a merchant account, make sure that you have thoroughly reviewed your options. Make sure that you fully understood what it is that the company has to offer.

Ask questions if needed. Remember that not all providers are fully equipped with complete risk management features to fully secure the business. In general, technology is created to help people execute certain works faster and easier. Know the system, understand the system and make the system work for you. Even high risk businesses wanted to set up a business merchant account because it does deliver convenience.

However, you must understand that merchant providers do ask for fees in exchange for the convenience that it delivers. The only thing that makes one provider different from the other is the rate and the amount of fees that they charge. However, think of it this way: if you are a busy person who owns either a big or a small business, time is important and by simply being able to transact via online, the very system helps you save time, money and effort.

Merchant Business

Tag Archives: Account

Setting Up Your Merchant Account For Online Payments

Become a Merchant Account Provider

High Risk Merchant Account Provider