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Getting a Credit Card Merchant Account
Electronic Commerce
In order to accept credit card payments on your e-commerce site, you need (at least) three things:
A form on your site to capture credit card information.
A payment processing system to authorize and post transactions.
A merchant account with a financial institution.
October 6, 1999
Here are a couple of articles to help you sort out the third piece of the e-commerce puzzle. A merchant account is simply an account at a bank or other financial institution that acts as a clearing account for credit card transactions. Setting one up happens to be a good deal more complicated than opening a checking account, however.
With the current boom in Web-based commerce, scads of small businesses are opening up merchant accounts for the first time. Naturally, this means that scads of companies are out there offering merchant accounts, and targeting small Internet-based businesses. The deals they offer, however, vary widely to say the least. There are plenty of good deals out there, but plenty of ripoffs as well.
As always, educating yourself about the process is the best way to make sure you get the best deal for your business. Below are links to some resources that should help you sort things out.
All About Merchant Accounts
(The e-commerce Guide) - Whether you're Books-A Hundred or Books-A Million, if you're serious about selling on the Web you need to be able to accept payments from your customers. While there are many different payment methods, the most popular include accepting credit cards and in order to do so you'll need to set up a merchant account.
Accepting Credit Cards: Getting a Merchant Account
(Web Developer's Virtual Library) - This article explains how a credit card merchant account works, with a few hints on creating good order forms and choosing a payment processing system.
Do the banks hold back E-commerce in the UK?
If you're in the UK, getting that merchant account might not be so easy. Compare the situation of the average UK small business that wants to add e-commerce with his cousin in the USA.
e-commerce Tutorial
A detailed, three-part tutorial about how to set up a simple e-commerce Web site, written by UK Web developer Bob Browning.
The Electronic Commerce Guide
Internet.com's comprehensive list of e-commerce resources. If you can't find what you're looking for here, it ain't out there.
