The best Merchant Account

[guruwebllc]

Please let me know what you think is the best Merchant Account out there, 2checkout? authorize? let me know which one you have the best experience with.

[stymiee]

Authorize.net is only a payment gateway, not a merchant account. Without a merchant account associated with it it just won't work.

And it all depends where you are located, average ticket size, and monthly volume. Businesses outside of the US have far less options and will pay more. In the US there are hundreds of options including third party providers. You would need to figure out which is most cost effective for your business. Smaller merchants will do better with a third party processor like Paypal while larger merchants will want a true merchant with a gateway.

[etechsupport]

Have a look on available different payment processing companies and their price structure; http://www.litecommerce.com/payment_gateways.html

[stymiee]

Those are only payment gateways and not actually merchant account processors. Without the merchant account those gateways are useless.

[oshelpers]

Those are only payment gateways and not actually merchant account processors. Without the merchant account those gateways are useless.

I am going to start my 1st post disagreeing with Stymiee.
Always a good start :)

I think there is a misunderstanding here in terms of "merchant account" and a "seller account", which is an account you'd be creating when you signup at i.e. checkout.

You don't need to have a merchant account in order to accept cc payments via 2checkout, paysystems, obviously paypal and some others on that link. Basically these companies already have an established merchant account which they are letting you borrow in a sense.

All the cc processing at 2co is running through their merchant account
otherwise you wouldn't be able to "start selling in minutes".

[stymiee]

I am going to start my 1st post disagreeing with Stymiee.
Always a good start :)

I think there is a misunderstanding here in terms of "merchant account" and a "seller account", which is an account you'd be creating when you signup at i.e. checkout.

You don't need to have a merchant account in order to accept cc payments via 2checkout, paysystems, obviously paypal and some others on that link. Basically these companies already have an established merchant account which they are letting you borrow in a sense.

All the cc processing at 2co is running through their merchant account
otherwise you wouldn't be able to "start selling in minutes".

Look at the URL. It's even says, "payment gateways". But yes, a few of them are third party providers but most are pure gateways. Without a merchant account a pure gateway just won't work.

[musicbox]

if you ask for payment gateway then paypal and google checkout can be used.

[mobileman]

Please let me know what you think is the best Merchant Account out there, 2checkout? authorize? let me know which one you have the best experience with.

Which ones have you tried so far? One cool service I use is GelPay.com. I take my credit cards from my cell phone without any extra equipment. When I called some companies to see how much those handheld swipers were, it was over $1000 bucks! Another thing I like about it, is if people don't trust me for some reason, I can send digital invoices to their email and they can pay me on their own computers. Then it sends me a text message and email saying they paid so I can verify. After they pay, they can print out the receipt right there or just keep the link to view it as a digital receipt, or if I charge the card on my phone, I can send them a text message or email with a receipt too. Try it out, I like it.

[boattraveller78]

If you are a Costco member in the US, I don't know anything better than Elavon. no set up fee, free AMEX, and below 2% transactions fees. You need to go through Costco business services though

[aabraham]

And it all depends where you are located, average ticket size, and monthly volume. Businesses outside of the US have far less options and will pay more. In the US there are hundreds of options including third party providers. You would need to figure out which is most cost effective for your business. Smaller merchants will do better with a third party processor like Paypal while larger merchants will want a true merchant with a gateway.

I'm gonna start my first post agreeing with stymie.
Maybe a better start...:)

It definitely does depend on your business profile. I've been in the eCommerce realm for a while, and have had to go through a few providers. I will say, though, that it's always best to find a provider that is not only compatible, but reputable as well. There are plenty of ways to research a company's reputation online these days, so I'd put some time into that too.

I'm not a big fan of merchant account review sites, but I have to give credit where credit is due. This site has merchant account reviews (merchantmaverick.com) that focus more on a company's reputation than on rates etc... I think it may help you narrow your choices.

[inspiroHost]

CDGcommerce has never let us down.

[theemerchant]

thanks for the suggestions