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Because of the options you give customers by offering credit card payments, it creates a wider customer base. However, the first step to offering credit card payments through your business is setting up a merchant account.

A merchant account is a bank account that is established by your company to receive the payments from credit card purchases.

Simply done, right? It is a little more extensive than it comes off as, especially if you are accepting credit cards online. However, it is well worth it to set up a merchant account because of the potential increase in your business.

Generally, you will also need to lease equipment and software when setting up your merchant account. The reason for this is to ensure you and the customer that the transaction flows to your operating account.

If you are looking to accept credit cards online, you will need to sign up with a payment gateway. The payment gateway will allow you to accept credit card transactions online. When selecting your payment gateway, it is vital that the gateway is compatible with your software so that the transactions go through. Some of the more well-known payment gateways include Paypal, SECPay and authorize.net.

When you are looking for the right financial institution to help you set up your merchant account, make sure to research in-depth. There are a number of financial institutions that can offer you a merchant account, but you are going to want to go through an institution that has experience with small businesses. The reason being is that you are just starting out, so the institution will assist you with setting up your merchant account far better than any other financial institution.

The next phase of setting up your merchant account is the application. Each financial institution varies from one another, so you can receive word of your application from anywhere between 48 hours to 2 weeks. If you are starting an internet business, it is far more difficult to be approved than a retail store because of the higher rates for charge back and fraud.

After all this, how much is it going to cost you to be able to accept credit card payments? You should expect to pay on average around $200 to $300 for start up costs when setting up your merchant account. After that, there are processing fees that will cost you 2-2.75% of your annual sales volume for online transactions. Remember, this is a small fee for having versatility and opening the doors to many more customers.

While it may seem like a lot, it is a rather quick and painless process to set up a merchant account. Once it is set up, you will be ready to accept credit card payments on or offline. Jim Saka

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