Real Merchant Account - Canada

Was 2Checkout - Now What?

[andmunn]

Hello All,

I'd like to implement a "real" checkout account for my business. I bring in not much (approx $1000/mth), but with recent changes, i'd like to perhaps pursue this avenue.

What are the steps I need to take? I assume i need to first register as a legal busines entity (anyone know the process for Ontario?)... and then how do i go about getting a merchant account? What are the fee's? Would they be justified given my current revnue?

Woudl i also need to switch to a "different" hosting plan, or would my current plan be fine?

I'm new to this "ecommorce" thing - and have mostly dealt with 2checkout and payal in the past.

Any advice Appreciated.

Andrew.

[Corey Bryant]

You might contact www.digitallyjustified.com/merchant.php and talk to Derek over there. He will be able to provide you with some information on Canadian merchant accounts.

The $1,000 is usually the start for US merchant accounts and about the same for Canadian merchant accounts. Do your due diligence and compare the prices. If they are about the same, a merchant account might prove to actually also increase your sales.

-Corey

[kodaks]

I am experienced with helping some of my Canadian clients in properly legalizing their businesses in Ontario. Here are the resources you need to check out from Government Canada:

General Business Legalization for Ontario:
[businessgateway.ca...]

You can also help to an authorized Ontario business specialist for free:
[vweb.cbsc.org...]

If you have any other questions, please feel free to send a sticky!

[andmunn]

Thanks guys for your help.
Can you help me differentiate something? After doing some searching, i've looked into #*$!, and PSI Gate...I'm a little confused.

What is the difference b/w the "merchant account" and a gateway.

Ideally, what i'd like, is to have the customer enter there CC details on my webpage (secure obviously, and formated the way i like), and then these details would be passed on to the merchant.

Anyone help? i'll give derek a shot =) maybe he's full of info.

Thanks,
Andrew.

[Corey Bryant]

An electronic payment gateway is basically the virtual connectivty between your site & the verifying authority (like First Data, Visanet, American Express, etc). Think of it like the POS terminal in the commissary.

The merchant account allows you to accept the credit cards. Once the gateway returns a positive value on the authorization, a batch is ran. Once the batch is ran, it tells the MAP how much money you should be getting and mone is moved from the issuing bank to the acquiring bank and then is moved to your bank account (basically)

-Corey

[blaze]

2C0 and PayPal are quite useful at your level.

They provide a certain degree of fraud protection (too much with 2C0 sometimes) and they also handle the 'gateway' aspect.

As you get bigger, you'll want to handle this different. The merchant account will handle the credit card fulfillment, while the gateway, correct me if I am wrong, will handle the website aspect, credit card input, fraud protection, etc.

The credit card companies are being very annoying. PayPal seems to be our last line of defense.

Someone really needs to fight back here.

[andmunn]

Hi,

Thanks for your input - i have used paypal and 2checkout up until this point - but am dissapointed and a little concerned.

Assuming my profits are around $1000/mth - would it be possible to setup a "real" merchant account at no mroe then around $100/mth in fee's / costs? Is this a reasonable amount? If so, i understand these fee's would be higher then paypal, but it's something i'm willing to sacrifice.

Thanks,
Andrew.

[Corey Bryant]

I am not that familiar with Canada's protocols. With the US - I would say yes. Derek would be able to answer those types of questions

-Corey