Merchant Account Tips

[philbish]

I have accepted paypal in the past (and gotten burned a couple times from fraud) but now it is time for me to get a merchant account.

Are there any tips you can give me to keep fraud at a minimum? Also what do I need to know about merchant accounts that will be useful to me? I am just trying to get some more information so I can avoid mistakes... So share some of your past experiences.

I appreciate it :)

Phil

[Big_Balou]

philbish,

probably the most important thing I can advise is to read everything! Some resellers, which is mainly who you'll probably be dealing with, have great sounding terms and rates in the great BIG print and then so many additional fees and stipulations that negate the low fees.

Whenever you contact someone always request that they e-mail/fax you a copy of the merchant agreement, not the summary but the actual agreement...fine print included, before you let them convince you of anything. Take the time to actually read the ENTIRE agreement. If you have problems or don't understand something DO NOT ask the people that sent the paperwork until you have a good understanding from an outside source....they, the reseller, tend to try to give simplistic overviews that gloss over points that may be of great importance.

Realize that depending on your past personal credit that you may not be able to get the dream deal but that does not mean you have to be railroaded into something that makes you commit for years with the only way out being a healthy, read costly, penalty.

Sometimes the best deal for you may not be the one with the lowest upfront price, while the discount rates are pretty much the same across the board.

Once you decide on the provider decide which cards you are going to take. Mastercard and Visa are pretty much the staple for the US market. Discover and AMEX are also used but not as much. Look at your current business and decide if it would be worth it for the others. While taking all of them does tend to add a little bit of inferred credibilty there can be draw backs that have been discussed in depth here on the boards. Do a site search and you'll find several threads about this.

Hope this helps a little.

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[moose606]

I would recommend that you look into Costco's merchant account offerings. They offer very attractive rates, and are fairly easy to set up. We have not had any problems with fraud, or chargebacks.