[ic] Good Merchant Account

Jim Balcom interchange-users@interchange.redhat.com
Wed Nov 21 21:14:01 2001


On Wed, 21 Nov 2001, Gary Henderson wrote:

GH>>I am a new interchange user.  I am looking for a good merchant account.  I
GH>>will only be processing between $500 and $1000 a month to start out.

The general trend at the moment is that getting a merchant account is quite
easy. Various companies are falling all over themselves to sign people up. I
get almost as many telemarketers for merchant accounts as I get
telemarketers for long distance service and health plans.

There are numerous 'front end' companies signing people up, and they all
process through a very few 'back end' companies. Echo and First Data are 2
back end companies. Both are quite good, but I prefer First Data.

Your projected volume is reasonably decent. Don't be embarassed by it.

Look for a low discount rate. I am presently at 1.75%, but I have been told
that it is ridiculously low. But, I don't complain! Anything under 3% is
very good!

Look for someone that is offering to set you up for a little, or no,. set up
fee. If you are going to have an on-site terminal, count on spending around
$500 (or thereabouts) to buy the terminal. You can usually lease them also.

If you are not going to use a gateway that is built into IC, you can get PC
software for around $500 - such as ICVerify (CyberCash) etc.

Avoid companies with high front end fees (disguised as application fees,
installation fees, etc)

Once you have things set up for Visa and MasterCard, getting Discover and
Diner's Club is a piece of cake, just pay their initiation fees.

American Express is generally easy to get, but they don't have proccessors
for the back end, but rely on the processors for Visa and Mastercard. Or,
the last time I checked, I have to have a Visa/Mastercard Merchant account
to process American Express. That may have changed.

Don't be ashamed of your volume. Shop around and find the best deal.

-= Jim =-

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