I would like to accept credit cards for my small photography business. There are a number of companies out there offering to sell merchant numbers. Has anyone had a merchant number or know a company that is good to work with. Ideally I would like to run the credit cards over the internet as I don’t have a land line phone but will be selling more like retail.
There are many companys offering credit card acceptance –but you must find one that is "friendly"to a small business like yours.
There is really no way of saying which is best—without knowing what sort of figures you plan to offer….You may be better off with Paypal or similar. A lot of people will not use credit cards on-line..because of the fear of theft…and rightly so—because you are even stating that you are only going to use this service on-line. That is theft waiting to happen …..because of chances of over billing..multi billing…re-incurring billing ..stolen cards…and many other issues that you will get charge backs for. ( in case you don’t know that means YOU lose money !!! ) Without having a real store where buyers physically arrive with card ..and you slide said card…the costs will be astronomical in cost…because the credit card companies will understand this risk…and charge you accordingly. So as soon as you tell the on-line business–they will run from you–or charge you !!!
I highly suggest PAYPAL–they aren’t the cheapest…but your customers will be able to pay without fear of theft from on-line predators.
Try the Discover Card
GEt two to three quotes to compare… ideallly you want somethign with LOW to none in termination fees… and good rates. dont’ check just the qualified rate (which is often advertised as a loss leader)… you want the rate for all the three major categories.
qualified
mid qualified
non qualified which will be highest
You also want to know how much extra for running internet
A great company is below but their website is kind of unfinished. S o far they have great rates and are lower than the banks.
you can check Sam’s club for rates and also possibly Costco. Try to get written quotes that cover all fees. REALLY check out the vendors because there are some that are horrid and will slap you into 3 year contracts with high termination fees and RAISE and lie to you. Do a complaint search and BBB check up on the main processor no matter who you use.
I have been in the payment processing industry for over 6 years. I now work in the high risk industry so my opinions won’t be biased.
#1 MERCHANT ACCOUNT, NOT A FOOD AND RETAIL STORE. First of all, do not go to Sam’s or Costco. They are wholesale retailer, not a merchant account provider.
#2 Why would you get a merchant account from a company who doesnt even accept Visa or Mastercard? *Cough cough -Sams Club and Costco – Cough*
#3 DO NOT LEASE!
#4 STAY AWAY FROM: Certified Payment Processing (Transtech Merchant Group and Summit Payment Systems) and Retriever (We call them Deciever, because you never know how much you are paying on your monthly statement, and they do that on purpose.)
Ok, so I actually filled out like 10 things and probably well into about 2000 words, but once I clicked on Submit, Yahoo Answers gave me an error message and said that Yahoo Answers was Unavailable at this time.
Basically… There are alot of things to reach out for. I would say, and I am in this industry, this has to be the most shady, scamming industry out there. I have been in this industry for over 6 years. I have done it all and worked up pretty high. I left the low risk business because there are thousands of resellers and merchant processors out there and 90% of them will hit you with fee’s and whatever they can because your actual volume in processing versus how much Visa/Mastercard (Interchange) charges us is only fractions of a penny so they charge crazy fees.
Now I am in the high risk industry. My company deals with high risk clients, so I can only refer you to a bank that will set you up right. If not, then if you think you found a provider, you can send me over the contract before you fill it out and send it to them and I can take a look at it and make sure they are not breaking you.
These are great suggestions. I would add more strongly stay clear of contracts or termination fees as many companies have fine print and hidden fees that may only be disclosed after the fact. Also if you think they have lousy customer service you shouldn’t have to be stuck with them. If you are accepting credit cards face-to face you can get lower rates by swiping the credit cards through a USB card reader or get an IP credit card machine.
Rates are important and quotes are generally useless as they can write one thing on the quote but another on their "contract". You want to get the actual paperwork you will sign to be accepted. If you are small you may want to inquire about monthly minimum requirements as most companies will charge you a min. of $25 regardless of whether you process or not. If you don’t process more than $10k a month the monthly fees may be more important than the rate you are paying.