Newbie needs help!

regarding online payment processors & merchant accounts

[konanmotihar]

Hi,
I've been in business for a little over a year now and since my volumes were initially small I've been using Paypal thus far. I've decided it's time to join the big boys and open a merchant account but am having trouble understanding how everything works. There seems to be so many providers offering as many different options and to be honest, it's left me a little bit confused. Can anyone offer an easy-ish to understand suggestion?
I'd like to stay away from companies that offer payment processing & merchant accounts as i've heard that they tend to be more expensive and cost is definitely a consideration. So I guess I'm looking at a payment processor and a merchant account with two different companies?
Any advice is much appreciated!

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

Did you try Googling it, e.g. [google.co.uk...]

[konanmotihar]

Thanks for writing back. I did try googling a couple of different things but for the most part search results have consisted of companies selling services. While some of the sites have been informative they're certainly not objective, ie. there is a certain amount of vested interest on the part of the company.
Which is why I'm posting here...I'd like impartial advice from people who've done it before. From what I've understood so far -
I need a payment gateway
I need a merchant account
I could get both from one company but it may prove more expensive

So if anyone could recommend a payment gateway that would be great. Also any advice as to whether to go with a large company or a smaller company would be appreciated.

Thanks all

[konanmotihar]

Right...through extensive reading and much web surfing I've more or less figured out the answers to the questions in my previous post and have narrowed down my choice of payment gateway to 2 possible suppliers, one large and well known (Authorize) and the other relatively small (first atlantic commerce).
The real difference I see between the two (other than the obvious - size!) is that first atlantic's website talks about merchant accounts with their partner banks. i assume that when they say this they don't actually own a bank but have some sort of reciprocal arrangement with a number of banks. Not sure if I got that right so here's the link if anyone would like to cross check (http://www.firstatlanticcommerce.com...accounts.aspx). My question is this: Is there any advantage to going along with a gateway's partner bank as opposed to opening one's own account?
Any input would be greatly appreciated!

[justgowithit]

A gateway and a merchant account are two different pieces to the same puzzle. While one compliments the other there is no advantage to using a processor's proprietary gateway. Using a larger, more well-known gateway provider like auth.net is the best way to go for a number of reasons like security, ease of use, etc. - but also for compatibility issues.

Auth.net is compatible with many different processing platforms making your life much happier should you ever need to switch processing providers (merchant accounts).