Merchant Account/Merchant Gateway

[FlamingC]

I am setting up a new ecommerce company, my first time doing this, and I am a little confused between merchant accounts and merchant gateways for taking online card payments.

Are they the same thing but just with different names or are they different?
If they are different do some companies offer both services?

Any help you can pprovide to clearing up the confusion would be greatly appreciated.

 

[finleydesign]

Really just go for someone like Paypal, Squareup, stripe, all these people offer simple setup and full merchant services in one package

 

[finleydesign]

Sorry if you wanted to know the difference, the "merchant gateway" takes the money on the website and pays the money into a "merchant account" you then transfer the money to your own bank account, if you opted for just a gateway then you would need to open up a separate merchant account, as thats all really a waste of time and complicated just go with one of my suggestions above as its a gateway and account in one

 

[FlamingC]

Thank you for your response, that helps a lot.
I had been looking at Stripe and Paypal but had got myself confused with the different terminology.
Onto the next item on my list
Have a good day.

 

[finleydesign]

No problem, checkout Squareup good setup and payment process. Also don't forget it depends on the platform you are looking at to make sure it's compatible, most are but worth checking

 

[FlamingC]

I am looking at using BigCommerce and they appear to have the integration needed for all of these, which helps as I can choose the ones that will work for me.
Stripe appears best at the moment, as i will only be taking online payments, and maybe a few over the phone, but should I develop into a proper store I am going to need a POS option, which Stripe offers but it doesn't appear to be as developed as Square in that regard. Choices choices.

 

[finleydesign]

Hi, sure understand, we don't deal with bigcommerce so wouldn't know which ones are compatible.
The only annoying thing with stripe is they hold your money for a week

 

[FlamingC]

Yes, that is one of the things that has put me off Stripe at the moment. Being a small new business cash flow is not something you want held up when you first start.

 

[finleydesign]

I'd recommend looking at Squareup, don't think theres much in it but we we integrate this more that any other platform