Should I accept credit card payments?

[hollyhats]

I am thinking about adding a "pay by credit card" secure system to my site. Right now, you have to buy by check and you certainly do lose all those impulse buyers. Also, I think people feel more comfortable using their credit cards.
Where do I look for the credit card set up? Who has the lowest start up fees? Most importantly, how does it work?

[Brett_Tabke]

To be successful on the web, you have to take cc's. There are so many wide and varying cc setups, that you have to shop around for yourself. There really isn't even a top 2 or 3 that people have gravated too.

Fees are all over the map from a little over 1% to as much as 10% depending on services.

[Filipe]

Right now, you have to buy by check and you certainly do lose all those impulse buyers. Also, I think people feel more comfortable using their credit cards.

You have a good understanding of what's going on. I can't add to what Brett said (he's a talent for getting things right the first time) but in addition to your above comment, I think people just don't like the hassle of checks.

I can buy something with my credit card, and it arrives at my door. I don't have to mail something off - which adds the additional purchase of envelopes and stamps (not that these aren't always lying around, but now I have to buy them more often). Then, there's also the added time of

(a) the check being taken by the postal service
(b) the check making it to you
(c) you verifying the check (Many companies this on Fridays)
(d) you sending the product
(e) the product arriving at my door

With credit cards, you eliminate steps (a) through (c). It becomes:

(a) pay with Credit Card
(b) you send the product
(c) product arrives at my door

It may not seem significant, but to fast-pased internet shoppers, it's a world of difference. One of the better moves eBay has made was allying with PayPal to allow people to buy things and verify payments without the use of checks.

[deejay]

credit cards are to the internet what cash is to the 'real world'.

Would you open a bricks and mortar store and say "oo, no, sorry, can't take your cash... you'll have to write a cheque"?