Credit Card Merchants – Which ones is best?

When you go into business and you have a website created for you, one of your primary steps is finding a credit card merchant who can process payments fro your goods and services. This is off course a fundamental step in business finance. The trick here is which company to use?

There are lots of companies (mainly banks) who will act as a payment processor and there setup charges and rates vary tremendously. As many readers know at YBS we recommend 3 quotes for any business service, and this is no exception. Choosing a credit card merchant largely depends on a few factors:

1. Will you require a credit card machine – i.e. are you a shopkeeper or have an office people will arrive at with there credit card in hand?
2. Do you take payments over the phone?

These are the primary trading points most business people in the UK operate with. The charges, as stated vary. For example, if you were to choose a bank, lets say Lloyds, they seem to bases there credit card percentage charge on the client. We was offered this facility and the bank wanted a £300 depoist and a charge of 1.8% per transaction. This is all well and good and for the per son whose business fits point 1 its fine, however we didnt fancy paying £300 so did not take it, instead we opted for point 2.

We chose as our credit card merchant, Paypal which although was 1-2% more per transaction, the setup charge for paypal pro was £25 and we can take credit card payments over the phone so its a win-win situation. The draw though for both points 1and 2 is that if the client cancels, you get your account charged back.

Credit Card Merchant Accounts

To sum up, do get 3 quotes for this service and haggle, the banks in particular will bend somewhat on there transaction charges and if you have a good credit rating and credit history, you will find haggling will be a whole lot easier. You can opt for Paypal ideally if you take payments on the phone or if you wish to incorporate e commerce in your website, just watch the charges and again there are many online credit card merchants who operate on the internet, do your research and get 3 quotes always.