Forum Moderators: buckworks
I own a domain name and I am currently in talks with an established online seller to basically host a store and manage all the technical aspects for an ecommerce site while the other company will ship the products etc.
We agreed that he will also handle all the credit card transactions.
The one problem is that we don't want his company name to be on the CC statement, ie. we want to keep it as seperate entities so nobody will know that he is also shipping for my store.
Are there any potential legal issues that I should think about?
Is this person getting the merchant account with Company A on it? It seems like you need a merchant account with the new company's name on it
-Corey
This is the problem, he has his company, and I have mine.
We only want the URL shown.
If this is not possible I guess he will have to form a new company.
but don't forget ho ever owns the merchant account that company gets the money.
I would set up the merchant account in my company's name, and allow the other company to access the account.
most payment gateways allow more than one user name.
If you're in business together you're liable together. Forming a company under which each of you are members will at least add another level of protection and should help to ease any disputes.
The LLC will also give you a formalized joint-venture to "hang" the merchant account on.
can a Corp. less then 3 years get an merchant account
can a Corp. less then 3 years get an merchant account
More and more so the restrictions on new e-commerce businesses are being broken down by tough industry competition. Yes, a new corp./LLC will be able to get a merchant account - and a competitive one at that.
Processors are coming to the point where they're starting to segment and compete against themselves in this area. First Data for example wouldn't touch an online businesses less than 12-months old but CardService never had a problem - same company - different sub.
Of course, all of this depends on the sales outfit that you're dealing with. If you're dealing with a larger outfit that is able to underwrite their own risk they can do whatever their business model allows.
As the others have said, get a DBA so that that name will be seen on the consumer statement. I have seen this numerous times.
If you have a merchant account already, check with them. Sometimes they will waive the monthly fee for multiple merchant accounts
-Corey
