Advice needed with merchant account....

[AndyBlack]

Hi,

A quick question regarding merchant accounts. If you have 3 websites, but all link into the same bank account, as they are all under the same business, would these need to have seperate merchant accounts (Worldpay)?

I have just got 3 seperate merchant accounts, one for each of three websites, but all of the merchant accounts will pay into the same account.

Did I just need to get one merchant account? or with it still being 3 sites, did I need to get the 3 accounts?

Thanks

Andy

[Masterfulmatt]

I asked this very question yesterday when speaking with Cardnet.

If the sites are different ie abc.co.uk and def.co.uk then you need a different merchant account for each one.

The reasons I was given for this is that on a customers credit card statement it will give the site address ie abc.co.uk

If you used the same account for various sites, people would see a different "name" on their statement, call the credit card company and claim their card had been hacked, demand refunds etc and you'd end up with a lot of chargebacks.

The only way around that is to have one site that hold various sites within it, then you could operate with the one merchant account.

Not 100% convinced the above is the case for all merchant companies, but thats what cardnet informed me.

[beadell]

we are with Streamline and had to have a separate merchant account for the website and the retail shop...although both go into the same bank account

[MichaelG]

You can use one account with as many webstores as you like. When you apply for your merchant account - use your company name and in all your online stores - make sure your shoppers what is going to show up on their credit card statement. Add this in BOLD to your invoice or order confirmation.

[Masterfulmatt]

That brings me to another question, I have a MOTO merchant No at the moment, but need another one for the ecommerce site (£180 setup and £25 a month) :(

Once I have the internet merchant no. can i drop the Moto one and still do phone transactions through the internet merchant no.?

[Masterfulmatt]

You can use one account with as many webstores as you like. When you apply for your merchant account - use your company name and in all your online stores - make sure your shoppers what is going to show up on their credit card statement. Add this in BOLD to your invoice or order confirmation.

Nice one Michael, who do you use for your merchant account? Does anyone with Cardnet do this as well?

[MichaelG]

we have an online merchant with barclays and I use secpay payment gateway mostly. They have a very good API and good tech support (nothing ever goes wrong though)

[MichaelG]

With your internet merchant no - yes you can take payment over the phone.

[Blush]

I use worldpay on both sites not a problem yet,maybe something I may test out myself though just to double check