2 merchant accounts or 1?

[Toon]

When I first started in business I only dealt with online sales. Therefore I chose to have an internet merchant account. I pay £23.50 per month (inc VAT) to Protx so they can take payments for me and BOS ( Bank of Scotland) charges me a minimum of £15 per month. So for the Internet merchant account it costs me a minimum of £28.80 pm.

When I moved into my shop I needed a terminal so I stuck with BOS and am renting a terminal. Again, I have to spend a minimum of £15 pm with BOS and also have to spend £22.40 pm to hire the terminal. That's a minmimum of £27.40. That means for both accounts I am being charged £56.20 pm before I even take a payment!

Do you think it's worth cancelling the Internet account and putting the payments through manually? There's aren't a great deal of transactions so it wouldn't take too much time but there are a few reasons why I am hesitant:

1. Having the internet account means I don't have to view the fraudsters attempts.
2. The internet account also tells me what kind of risk is involved in the transaction even if it is processed - sometimes a payment can be authorised but still comes up as a high risk. The terminal would not be able to do this.
3. Customers may feel more secure entering their details directly into Protx and could lose this security feeling if they just enter their details direct into my shopping cart.

But £28 is much better in my pocket!

What would you do?

[DuaneJackson]

I would get rid of the machine and keep the internet one. ProTX have a facility where you can log in and manually process payments.

[Toon]

I would get rid of the machine and keep the internet one. ProTX have a facility where you can log in and manually process payments.

Yeah but I have a shop!

[Top Hat]

You'd need some secure space on your server too, if you went the terminal only route (£10 per month ??)

How much do you save for each online order you put through on your terminal (easy bit of maths) now is the effort of setting it up and doing the transactions worth it?

And finally at what point would it be worth switching back (How many online orders?) and will you achieve that any time soon.

[DuaneJackson]

I would get rid of the machine and keep the internet one. ProTX have a facility where you can log in and manually process payments.

Yeah but I have a shop!

Why would that be a problem? Do you not have sonme sort of computer at the POS? If so, you can just process the cards from there. I guess without a signature though it's still "cardholder not present" and you're liable for any fraud.

[Toon]

You'd need some secure space on your server too, if you went the terminal only route (£10 per month ??)

How much do you save for each online order you put through on your terminal (easy bit of maths) now is the effort of setting it up and doing the transactions worth it?

And finally at what point would it be worth switching back (How many online orders?) and will you achieve that any time soon.

The shopping basket already has secure pages through "Mals-e" and all I would need to do is press a couple of buttons and it will all be setup to take manual payments. Obviously the other points you mentioned need thinking about but actually setting it up will take 2 mins.

[Toon]

Why would that be a problem? Do you not have sonme sort of computer at the POS? If so, you can just process the cards from there. I guess without a signature though it's still "cardholder not present" and you're liable for any fraud.

I'm sure that's illegal.

[MinuWeb]

there are quite strict regulations on the collection and storage of credit card numbers, which is effectively what you would be doing if you were selling online and manually entering the data into a terminal. Some of which require onsite inspections of your hardware and software. Check it out thoroughly before doing anything as it could work out quite expensive......