Merchant Account Basics

One of the first decisions that has to be made upon deciding to accept online payments is that of a merchant account provider.  Most often people are confused as to what exactly a merchant account is.  However, the real work comes when selecting a partner as the choices seem almost endless, and finding the right solution can be overwhelming at best.

What Is a Merchant Account, Exactly?

In short, a Merchant Account allows you to accept credit cards payments. and the processor moves the money from your website’s shopping cart through the gateway, which verifies the credit card and then connects to your merchant account and pays you - all by daily depositing the money into your business checking account.  This happens throughout the month.  At the beginning the next month, the fees for processing are taken directly out of your business checking account.  You typically will have the choice of accepting Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express, Diners and JCB as well as alternative payment methods such as Google checkout, Amazon.com payments, eBillme and PayPal. 

So, what does this cost?  That’s where you really need to pay attention.  If you use a general number like 2%-3.5% that will cover your costs in terms of overhead.  The fees associated with merchant accounts can really make a difference though, especially if you plan on doing any type of dollar volume with regard to your transaction.

How do I choose a merchant account provider?

Not all providers are created equal, and there are a wide range of merchant rates out there.  Threshold is in a unique situation as a web services firm, and as such we recommend our preferred provider to all of our clients.  Having worked with and seen the wide range of providers and associated costs, we believe strongly that we have the single best merchant provider in the business (which is why we use them too!).  The single biggest goal for our partner is to find exactly the right solution for your business.  In the merchant business many companies only share some of the costs and since you do not know what to ask that’s where they make their money.  With our referral you get all the answers up front and in writing without even having to know what questions to ask.  You are in good hands and you can meet face to face at your business, over the phone or communicate via email - saving your valuable time.  So if you are interested in making money, saving money and growing your business then talk to us about how to move forward with opening your merchant account.