Friday, September 25, 2009

Merchant account by J. Johnson

Merchant Account

by Jennifer Johnson

One who has an online business must have a merchant account. Here the question arises - Which merchant account provider should one choose? What one should be looking for in a merchant account provider?
1. Price - Money is the most important factor. Merchant Account Providers have a wide array of fees that they access. Providers charge a setup fee and a monthly fee for the service. One should look for a provider that does not charge setup fee and has a low monthly fee.
2. Processing Fee- Get the lowest processing rates. The providers also charge a small percentage as a fee for every transaction being processed. The more money you process in a month, the lower your interest rate will be. Part of the interest rate is accessed by the credit card company (Visa, MasterCard, etc), so there is a limit for how low you can get your rate.
Features
If you're using e-commerce software make sure your provider supports that. The provider should have a good interface for your web site. If you are designing your own system; make sure that the provider offers an API (Application Program Interface) so that you have sample code to connect to the payment system.
For more information on merchant account please visit website http://www.nationstransactionservices.com

Article Source: http://www.articlealley.com/article_32122_15.html

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Small business merchant accounts

Small Business Merchant Accounts

by Kevin Sarisky

A small business merchant account may be just what your company needs to edge out the competition. If your customer base is growing or they are asking increasingly for credit payment options as well as for information about your products and services, a merchant account can answer their questions and help to grow your business while leaving your competitors in the dust.

It is easy to apply for a small business merchant account. Just find a merchant account provider, which you can do by searching the Internet using relevant key terms. Browse the many sites offering this special type of commercial status before choosing one. Terms and fees vary a great deal, so you want to become knowledgeable about your choices before signing the contract. You may become tempted to take on more than a business the size of yours really needs at this point. Don’t be misled by all the bells and whistles that are available. Stick with the basics when you start out, and add other options only when they are truly needed and when you can afford them.

Companies offering a small business merchant account are usually banks and other financial institutions. Typically they look for a company’s good credit history, the ability to make payments on the merchant account, and avoidance of questionable commercial activities like spam or telemarketing. They are willing to extend credit to small business owners who demonstrate good business ethics, who have made good use of resources to date, and who have developed a sensible growth plan for long-term goals. Often, the application can be filled out online and submitted electronically, and you may receive an answer within a matter of hours. Then you can immediately purchase or lease credit processing equipment like a credit card processor, electronic or wireless, as well as check and debit processors, pagers, and other types of technical equipment that will upgrade your business into a higher professional realm by dint of efficiency and speed capabilities.

Your small business merchant account will help you set up an Internet Website to promote your business internationally. Customers from around the world can browse the site any time of the day or night and shop without the hassle of finding the store closed or associates unavailable. With your convenience credit processing option, they can order a product or service and pay by credit card, facilitated by the underwriting bank or financial institution that authorizes MasterCard or Visa coordination and then pays you via an account transfer. All you really have to do after setting up the site and keeping it upgraded via service personnel is to make occasional equipment checks and then withdraw income from your merchant account.

A merchant account gives a small business owner the freedom to conduct business like a professional, using the same equipment and services to attract and serve busy customers. Others in your field who don’t have a merchant account may lose clients to your company when you upgrade to the use of time-saving technology. Check out the advantages along with the responsibilities of opening a small business merchant account.

Contact:
[b]Kevin Sarisky[/b]
Merchant Solutions
2239 West 190th Street
Torrance, CA 90504

Tel: (424) 212-9500
Fax: (310) 928-4195
ksarisky@merchantsolutionsiq.com
http://www.moourl.com/MerchantSolutions

Article Source: http://www.articlealley.com/article_947654_15.html

About the Author: Kevin has extensive experience in the credit card processing field, from Sales Agent, Risk

Analysis, Proposals and Operations Manager for a major credit card processor. He can quickly

guide and educate the merchant on how best to lower their fixed costs, reduce unnecessary

expenses and offer merchants many merchant account options and help the merchant pick the

correct solutions.

Merchant Solutions
2239 W. 190th St
Torrance, CA 90504

(424) 212-9500

ksarisky@merchantsolutionsiq.com

http://www.nabancard.com/?source=12471

http://www.nabancard.com/?source=12471

Friday, September 18, 2009

Wireless merchant account equipments more comfortable

Wireless Merchant Account Equipments more comfortable!

by Jack Chevalier

Merchant accounts are accounts opened by various business establishments to facilitate payments by means of credit cards, debit cards, gift cards and other electronic payments. In the present era, merchant accounts have become necessary for business activities, especially where there is a customer interface like retail establishments etc.

Now days, wireless merchant accounts are very popular. Wireless Processing Equipment is the most rapidly-growing credit card processing solution. Wireless merchant accounts can increase your business by allowing you to accept credit cards anywhere in your office home or even on road.

Time is money – and a key component of customer satisfaction. The latest equipments for wireless merchant accounts and credit cards enable you to provide for fast, reliable card authorization services. Its mobility and technology simplify payment acceptance and speed throughout at the counter, tableside, through your web store, or even while mobile with a wireless merchant account.

You can send and accept credit cards anywhere, anytime with a wireless merchant account. The NURIT 8000 series is a flexible, lightweight, handheld terminal that enables fast, secure, error-free transactions for on-the-go merchants. The sophisticated multi-application platform supports a range of payment & value-added services - including credit, debit, T&E, EBT, smart card, gift and loyalty cards. The unit supports GPRS and includes an easy-to-load thermal printer, with optional a touch screen, built-in PIN Pad, and EMV smart card reader.

The Comstar wireless solution lets you to have easy and cost-effective secure process, real-time credit card transactions virtually anywhere in a matter of seconds. It combines a compact handheld wireless magnetic card reader with the innovative Transaction Manager, a web-based database and reporting system, and other features such as e-mail to offer companies an economical yet robust comprehensive wireless solution to securely execute, authorize and manage credit card payments in real-time. It can also be used with your existing systems. Moreover, it is very fast and reliable, running on nationwide Cingular Wireless Mobitex and Motient networks.

Choosing the right machine with the coverage area kept in mind allows you to make successful financial transactions. Using a wireless credit card terminal you can capture swiped card data in a face-to-face environment with the cardholder thus protecting yourself by obtaining approval codes and qualifying for the best Interchange rates.

While setting up a wireless merchant account, do not compromise on the equipment you purchase. First identify the coverage area and consider the programming and wireless chip activation. Ensure that you have equipment warranty with your processor. That will save you time, effort and shipping costs in the long run.

For more information, visit Credit Card Processing and Merchant Account Services.

Article Source: http://www.articlealley.com/article_203253_19.html

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Best practices for businesses with internet merchant accounts

Best Practices for Businesses with Internet Merchant Accounts by Michael Rupkalvis

With lawmakers passing new laws to reform credit card companies, the industry is at high alert, particularly where security for internet merchant accounts is concerned. Credit card companies are putting forth efforts to self-regulate, obviating the need for lawmakers to impose regulations which may not be in the industry's best interest. To this end, the major credit card providers have formed the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council's Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) to provide an effective and uniform standard for data security that every business with an internet merchant account must comply with. PCI DSS has been accepted as the de facto standard by government regulators, with slight modifications that may vary from state to state. If your business has an internet merchant account, you must have a written PCI DSS plan that is clear and easy for you and all your employees to follow.

PCI DSS recommends several practices to enhance the security of your company's computer systems and customer's data to protect this sensitive data from theft by fraudsters such as identity thieves. For the most part, breaches in data security can be traced to employee negligence--you should ensure that only authorized personnel have access to this data, and that they are properly trained. Avoid the use of wireless networks for sending sensitive data; wireless networks are more susceptible to interception and manipulation by data thieves. Instead of having all your data on a single server, set up a separate server to keep your most sensitive data on, and be sure to control both electronic as well as physical access to this server. By applying these guidelines, you can enhance the security of your business and protect your customers from unauthorized access to their sensitive data.

For a safe and secure solution for internet merchant accounts click here.

Visit us at http://www.thetransactiongroup.net

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Merchant account solutions for credit card processing

Merchant Account solutions for credit card processing by Jack Chevalier

Merchant accounts are bank accounts specifically designed to accept credit card payments. Such payments can be made by customers at either the store itself through a credit card terminal or online through a shopping cart made in the web page of the company. To accept a credit card payment, a merchant first requires an Internet merchant account in a bank or financial institution.

After obtaining a merchant account, the merchant would require a payment gateway account. This is basically the processing account, which verifies the authenticity of the credit card and then transfers the funds to the merchant account. The customer enters his credit card information on the merchant's web page. This should take place on a secure web page, meaning that the information collected in this web page should be encrypted so that it cannot be read by any third party. Next, the shopping cart program then compiles the information and transmits the same to the credit processor, which is the payment gateway. The card processor verifies the information and determines the company that manages the customers credit card, and then transmits the billing request.
Upon receiving the request, the credit card company validates the accounts and ensures everything is in order. It then sends back an acknowledgement to the payment gateway. If the information is found to be authentic, the credit processor initiates the transfer of the funds to the merchant account.

The merchants also have the choice of opting for a third party merchant account. Here, the merchant account provider company collects the funds on the behalf of the merchant.
Processing fees for third party merchant account providers are higher than of a personal merchant account. The processing of merchant accounts works in the same way for both merchant accounts and third party accounts. The only difference is that instead of paying directly in the merchants website , the customers are directed to pay in the third party processor website. The customers enter their credit card details in the third party processors website and the rest of the process works the same way.

Article Source: http://www.articlealley.com/article_81926_15.html

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Merchant Account Services for your businessaccount rates- far from flat

Merchant account rates - far from flat by Ben Dwyer

This article about a flat rate merchant account and more information to help businesses find the best merchant account is available at the MerchantCouncil.

A flat rate merchant account would make the lives of business owners and accountants much easier, but they eventually come to realize that there's nothing flat about merchant account fees. Fortunately, there is something close. While it still won't boil processing charges down to a single rate, interchange plus pricing does apply a flat mark-up to all discount fees.

Most merchant accounts are based on tiered or bucket pricing with qualified, mid-qualified and non-qualified discount rates. This model is slowly but surely giving way to something called interchange plus that applies a direct mark-up to the actual cost of a transaction. This type of pricing is the closest thing to a flat rate merchant account that a business will be able to achieve.

Merchant processing charges are based on Visa and MasterCard's interchange reimbursement schedules. These schedules dictate the percentage of a credit card transaction that a merchant's acquiring bank must pay the cardholder's issuing bank. The inner workings of the this system are pretty complex so I won't get into the details in this article, but suffice to say there are many different interchange charges that can be applied to individual credit card transactions.

Because there are so many different discount categories, there can never be a true flat rate merchant account. Well, that's not entirely true. If a merchant agreed to pay the highest possible interchange category on every transaction, they could conceivably have a flat rate merchant account. Of course, the cost of this account would be unnecessarily astronomical to say the least.

Interchange plus merchant accounts with their single mark-up are the closest thing to a flat rate merchant account. The other option is a tiered account that groups all of the various fee categories into just a few buckets. This method results in sporadic mark-ups and lost money for the merchant.

The CEO of a merchant service company that quotes exclusively interchange plus pricing once said to me, "tiered rates are the biggest joke going in this industry." I understood what he meant, but the joke is on the merchants that are paying fluctuating mark-ups and losing money while doing it. Once they learn the benefits and transparency of interchange pricing, they won't be so amused - especially with their current merchant account provider.

Now that I've preached the benefits of interchange, I need to pull back on the reins a little bit to be fair and balanced. Merchant service providers have real costs and risks associated with their business and interchange pricing leaves them a much narrower margin to operate within than tiered pricing. No one is in business to lose money, and they can't feasibly offer interchange pricing to everyone.

Some businesses, especially new establishments, probably won't be able to obtain interchange pricing. If this sounds like your situation, it's not that big of a deal. There are very competitive tiered accounts to be had. Check out our sister site, CardFellow, to get a few different quotes to help find the best credit card processor. Even if you don't get interchange quotes right away, you can always switch once you begin processing.

Article Source: http://www.articlealley.com/article_960617_15.html

http://www.merchantcouncil.org

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

What merchant account processing service is suitable for your home based small business

What Merchant Account Processing Service Is Suitable For Your Home Based Small Business? by Gley Yahya

Are you thinking of selling goods and/or services on the web? If so, you will probably considering getting a merchant account processing service to accept credit cards on your site.

What is a merchant account processing?

A merchant account processing service allows sellers to accept credit cards, debit cards or any other forms of payment cards as payment for products and services. This is a bank accounts used to process card transactions.

What types of card credit processing solution are available?

All most you can find a solution for any type of business you are in. Online credit card processing, Swipe terminals for retail merchants; PC software for mail order/phone order and Internet businesses, mobile merchant accounts, mail and telephone order facility, and much, much more. Each service have their own pros and cons, you may need to investigate the market more carefully before you decide which service is suitable to your business.

All in all, there are two main ways to set up a credit card services merchant account, which we will examine here.

- The first method of setting up a home business merchant account is through a third party merchant company. There are numerous companies around that are willing to accept credit cards payments on your behalf in exchange for various fees and percentages.

In general third party merchants are free or cost very little when compared to the initial costs of opening your own merchant account. But, transaction costs of your own international merchant account much lower than third party merchant account processing company.

Go through a popular online payment service like PayPal, ClickBank, CCBill AlertPay, Digibuy or Ibill and open account. Or, you may decide to use any of a number of merchant account providers that can be found using your favorite search engine.

These services accept credit card payments from your customer and provide a variety of other services.

In common, PayPal is widely recognized, respected and provides a convenient way of accepting credit card payments. They offer a range of merchant tools, including a full shopping cart that can be used on your site, with any product or price that you choose. As a new home based small business starter and you don't know how much you can make when you start selling your product or service a third party merchant is suitable for you. It is also suitable in that the merchant takes care of everything for you. You just get a Cheque at the end of each payment period.

Before you open an online merchant account, be sure you have complete confidence in the company that is handling the payment process.

2 - The second method of setting up a small business merchant account is to go through a merchant account banking service. These are also available online, or you can talk to your bank about setting one up that can be used online.

If you want to appear professional business and inspire confidence, accepting Credit cards via your own master card merchant account is necessity. Having your own visa merchant account present a more professional face to the customers you are trying to convince to buy your products or services. And, as mentioned earlier, your transaction costs are usually much lower. However you have to be careful to minimize your credit card risks since you'll be processing the credit card payments yourself. This doesn't mean that there are no risks when using a third party merchant.

You can start your home based small business without an online merchant account, but if you plan to do any big business, you will need to get one. Merchant accounts are essential to ecommerce and any other type of online business.

Whichever you choose, if you are selling things on the Internet, you really have not much choice but to accept credit cards. You probably don't know what you missed until you try it out.

Finally. A merchant account provider that gives you Free Authorize.net, Free JPOS PC Software, Free Web Shopping Cart and Free Check-By-Phone/Fax Software. Click here to get started accepting credit cards ... with free Authorize.net payment gateway setup, no set-up fees and super-low rates starting at just 1.77% & .19 per transaction.