Merchant Credit Card Processing

I need some help with this

[thewebgurl]

Can anyone recommend any merchant credit card companies to go with?

Has anyone any experience with a merchant that they would like to share?

I need to get this set up like ASAP! Thanks

[thewebgurl]

I forgot to add that this is for a digital product. I will be selling memberships to my site. (biz opps)

[bonnie1bonnie]

Hi! I would say, start at the bank where you/your clients do business. While banks are often a big ripoff, it helps to have a rate for comparison and sometimes banks will lower the rates if you really haggle.

Banks will make it sound like the percentages and fees they will charge you for a merchant account with a credit-card scanning unit are set in stone - really it's totally capricious. Pretend you are at a Persian Rug market, haggle and play hardball, it works.

There are now a plethora of online merchant services - you can google for their Web pages. I would suggest that you NOT go with what's cheapest. Make sure that you can speak with a live human for support. Lots of $$ and customer satisfaction will be in the balance, make sure you won't be fumbling around with a customer's $$ when systems go "down", etc.

Getting a merchant account is very difficult for many, it's not unlike getting a morgage. Before you can start playing with credit cards they will look at your books, licenses, credit, banking histories and even talk to your friends! No kidding. So just be sure you have got it together before invoking these companies (some of the most powerful in the world, remember.)

If that can't happen, then explore some of the all-in-one online services, especially since you are selling digital products and not widgets needing to be shipped, etc. Look for a company that has "buy now" buttons and will process the back-end of the transaction. Usually for a fairly significant percentage plus fees.

I know some sellers that are having good success taking their wireless laptop to the marketplace and having customers standing at the booth use PayPal buttons on their Web site to sell stuff, then just handing it to the customer. Pretty cool. Inexpensive approach.

-- Bonnie

[axgrindr]

We are doing really well with Cardservice International as our merchant account provider. They use Linkpoint for their payment gateway.

[Corey Bryant]

It really depends on what country you are in thewebgurl

-Corey

[level80]

Personally I use Paypal for credit card processing. Their fees are far less than my bank quoted me and you can set it up quicker. There are a variety of others too (mainly American) but it depends what your criteria is regarding volume, language, country they're based in etc.

Paypal is pretty big though - I think they got bought by ebay a while ago.

[andye]

I use Worldpay but wouldn't particularly recommend it. Protx seems cheap, I've been considering them for a future project. Don't yet know much about their reliability, integration, etc.

hth, a.

[collymellon]

If you have basic programming skills Protx should be easy enough to implement.

I have had no troubles with them so far and the rates are ok. You get control over the payment page (how it looks) and it seems to perform well.

It also comes with the integration kits to make it a smoother job for you.

[etechsupport]

WP is expensive, you should check with few other processor as well as well like Protx,nochex, barclays, Chronopay, multicards, secpay etc. Better to choose 2-3 processors and ask quote to check who offer you best price.

[bartainer]

PayPal

[andye]

Of course Google's now an option too, although I haven't used them myself... anyone?...

best, a.