A merchant account is an account at a financial institution that allows you to accept credit cards. You may find that you can acquire a merchant account directly from your local bank or you may decide to use any of a number of Merchant Account Providers that can be found using your favorite search engine. Not all Merchant Accounts can connect to the Internet, and the ones that can may be limited to a particular Secure Payment Gateway, so be sure to determine how this account will connect to your site if you are a web merchant.
A Merchant Account Provider will open an account at a financial institution (a bank they are partnered with) for you that can handle Internet transactions. Be aware that there are a lot of non-reputable Merchant Account Providers out there, so make sure you check them out before you commit to one. Avoid all the hype and jargon, and don’t pay more than a $100 processing fee to get the account. Providers can get you equipment and software to process credit cards, however you don’t necessarily have to buy the equipment or software from them if you feel their prices aren’t within your budget range. All merchant accounts will have some kind of set up or application fee, which is usually at least $99. In cases where there is no fee, they are making up the difference with software or equipment sales, or otherwise marking up the transaction charges to cover this cost.
