Nick J. West

Selecting a Merchant Payment Gateway

Posted on March 13th, 2009 by njw

In order to process credit cards you will need a merchant account and you will need a payment gateway to accept credit cards at your business.

Many who are just starting out maybe asking what’s the difference, aren’t payment gateways and merchant accounts the same? No, one is strictly an account number to accept payments against, kind of like a Visa or MasterCard account assigned to your business without a credit line. A payment gateway is what allows the systems to talk to each other, debiting the customers account and crediting the merchants account.

Choosing a service provider is the first step, and unfortunately there are a bunch of companies like BankCards USA that abuse the uninitiated merchants by pushing or steering them into long contracts, high equipment fees and a system that’s setup to withhold more money than most small vendors can budget for.

PayPal, Google Checkout and similar services may suffice for a small vendor with limited sales, however lacking multiple payment options other than PayPal may dissuade customers who are not as familiar with alternate payment platforms from purchasing from your business.

Authorize.net, based in beautiful American Fork Utah can help you reach your needs, without sacrificing quality or by forcing you to sign a restrictive and expensive contract.

See what they offer in credit card processing by clicking here.