Business Info Help

If you have an e-commerce website, you should (if you aren’t already) accept all major credit cards as a method of payment.  Doing so allows you to cater to a wide variety of customers, including impulse buyers and international customers – offering credit cards and other methods as forms of global payments allows you to expand your customer base internationally.

There are two ways you can accept credit cards – using your own merchant account or through a third party merchant. 

In order to use your own merchant account, you need a bank that will allow you to do so – check with your local bank to see what the requirements entail.  The initial costs of using your own account are typically higher than using a third party merchant; however, the transaction fee associated with every sale is much lower with your own account. 

A third party merchant account is ideal if you are testing the water with a certain product, since the merchant takes care of everything for you and accepts credit cards on your behalf.  You will be required to pay various fees and percentages but using a third party merchant account is often seen as much lower risk.