Accept Credit Cards Online Without A Merchant Account


It is often assumed if you want to accept creditcards on your website that you must have a merchantaccount. This is not the case. You can accept creditcards with a Third Party credit card processor.

1) What is a Third Party Credit Card Processor?

A Third Party credit card processor is a company thatwill accept credit card payments on behalf of youor your company. The payments your customers make areprocessed through the Third Party's own merchantaccount, and you the retailer is paid (minus a commissionfee) by the Third Party processor.

No need to pay for expensive processing software, monthlyfees or minimum transaction fees. As you only pay apercentage fee on a sale, you cannot lose money.

2) Should I have a Merchant Account or Third PartyProcessor?

For most businesses this decision will be made accordingto the size of the company. Most small businesses do notneed their own merchant account.

Small businesses are better off with a Third Partyprocessor. The advantage is that when you sell yourproducts, the Third Party processor takes care of thepayment by checking the card, processing it, and sendingyou a monthly check.

Larger businesses with a bigger turnover are likely toneed a full merchant account. You will pay a biggerset-up fee for an online merchant account but pay lessper transaction than with a Third Party processor.So recouping your initial outlay.

So there it is, unless you have a large business it ispossible to accept credit cards online with a ThirdParty processor.


More Resources

Unable to open RSS Feed $XMLfilename with error HTTP ERROR: 404, exiting

More E-Commerce Information:

Related Articles

How Measuring Key Performance Indicators Can Improve E-Commerce Strategy - Part Two
Why time spent on your site is importantAll websites regardless of type should measure this KPI, simply because all websites can use it as a gauge to see how compelling their offers are as well as check web site performance. It doesn't matter whether you're running a content portal or an e-commerce sales operation, time spent on your pages is an important metric to measure.
7 Questions to Ask A Potential Internet Merchant Account Provider
Recently I went looking for an online merchant account, with disastrous results. I made the mistake of taking information at face value and relying on the ecommerce merchant account provider's good reputation in other areas.
The Five Most Commonly Encountered, Off-putting E-commerce Errors
While getting less public handwringing than during holiday season, the "abandoned shopping cart problem" continues to wreak havoc on online sales. Recently I judged a raftload of sites for the Webby Awards (my second time) and for the Inc.
The ClickBank E-Commerce Solution
ClickBank.com can offer you multiple solutions for your e-commerce business.
12 Powerful Ways To Use Autoresponders That Will Take YOU To The Top
If only I had known that autoresponders are a necessity to your online business when I first ventured online, I would have saved a lot of time and money. You have to automate in as many areas as possible and if used responsibly, autoresponders can be your best friend.
Set Yourself Apart From The Ordinary
I have written at length about the need to anticipate your visitors' needs. I have talked about how the first screen of the homepage needs to connect immediately and directly with the task each visitor has on his or her mind.
Top Ten Qualities to Look for in an Online Pharmacy
As you may have noted, there are thousands or even hundreds of thousands of websites selling pharmaceutical products or drugs. These are called ONLINE PHARMACIES or PHARMACIES ONLINE.
When Do You Ask For A Refund?
Have you ever asked to have your money refunded after buying something online? Do you do this often? What are the reasons you've asked for refunds? Savvy marketers will try to find out why without making you feel you should not have asked. This would be valuable information to them.
How To Start An Internet Business - Content, Content, Content
When it comes to e-commerce, the time-tested cliché is, "Content is king." In this case, the cliché is correct.
How To Start An Internet Business - Site Layout
The fourth step of how to start an Internet business involves the layout of your site. When organizing it, two audiences must be considered.
Ten Reasons Why Online Surveys Are The Future of Marketing
Customers are tough cookies. They're extremely media awareand increasingly cynical - it's a clever marketeer who canget under their skin.
Is It Still Possible To Make Money On The Internet?
Many people are saying that the internet is dead. So is there still money to be made on the Internet?The answer is a definite YES.
A Tale of Two Revolutions - Ecommerce: A Historical Perspective
The World As It Then WasThe dynamic economic growth of the late 19th century placed greater and greater demand on horses to deliver manufactured goods between train and local destinations. Horses pulled stagecoaches, buggies, omnibuses, cabs and even shipping barges in canals.
Choosing the Right Online Shopping Cart
Are you a website owner or a web designer/developer? If either applies, I would venture to say that eventually you'll need an online shopping cart for one of your websites. In fact, almost all new websites today need some sort of ecommerce built-in, for the purpose of selling goods and services in the online marketplace.
Merchant Accounts: What They Can Do For You
Congratulations! You created an impulse in a customer to buy your product. One small catch? without some way to take their credit card number, your sale is as good as gone.
Your Site is all Direct Marketing
This may not be a popular view, but I think writing a web site is very similar to writing a piece of direct mail. I'm not talking about smash-and-grab fliers.
Stakeholder Analysis and Stakeholder Management
What is a Stakeholder?Try "define: Stakeholder" in Google and you will be surprised by the huge differences in the way this simple word is defined. It perhaps proves - in a way - just how confused people get about Stakeholder Management and how inconsistent the different approaches to it can be!My simple definition is "anyone affected by a decision and interested in its outcome".
Merchant Account Insider Secrets - Accept Credit Cards Online
The process of learning how to accept payments on the Internet is similar to the course of figuring out how to launch a business. What at first seems puzzling and intimidating may be viewed as straightforward and easy to understand if one has the right guide or manual.
Conducting Business through B2B E-marketplaces
Businesses, which are still sitting on sidelines and not doing business on the Internet, should think seriously about their position! If you are one of them, chances are there, that you have to pay dearly for your indecision as you might lose significant market share to your more proactive competitors in a very short period of time.Apart from the fact that e-commerce is growing at the rate of more than 25 percent a year, the use of online features can bring efficiency to virtually every aspect of business process, be it supply chain management or customer support management.
Getting Started in ECommerce - Part Two
In Part One we talked a little bit about what Ecommerce is, getting a domain name and setting up a merchant account. Ecommerce is more than that, much more.