scott - 5:52 pm on Jun 12, 2001 (gmt 0)

One of the main problems with a standard merchant account to those just starting their businesses online is the minimums involved. Although the rates for charges vary widely, they all seem to have a policy about a certain amount of transactions per month or a minimum amount you must pay them. That can be a killer when you're just starting your site and don't get but a few customers for your first few months. Whether you actually make any sales or not, with a true merchant account, you're going to pay their ($15 to I've seen as high as $50) per month minimum...PLUS the Gateway fees.

Smaller businesses, just starting out need these ccnow.com's and 2checkout.com's that only charge you for actual transactions made, to be able to make it thru those first few months online before the sales really start to come. Of course there's a tradeoff. You pay a higher rate per transaction and usually they get to hold your money for a couple of weeks. The way to make them work effectively is to use them until you have that steady stream of sales each month to make a standard merchant account viable. (The breakover point seems to be about $700 in transactions per month). Then switch to a good merchant account. I've found goemerchant.com to be one of the lowest per transaction/monthly minimums/gateway charges around.

My plan (for those keeping score at home) is to stay with 2checkout.com for a few more months and then make the move to goemerchant.com.