Merchant Accounts Anyone?

[ttmw]

I'm thinking of getting into the ecommerce trade and already have a website tand host that will support zen-cart software so i cna get my shop online, but i hear you have to go to a bank to get a merchant account, and i realy dont know much about it.

I hear they are hard to get if you are only online and charge heavily. I realy want to be able to accept credit card payments as i think it will get me alot more business, but i dont want to have to pay a lot to start because i only have 200-300 visitors a day and dont know how well it will do.

Is there any other ways of accepting credit cards or how do i go about getting a merchant account?

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

ever heard of Paypal?

 

[itaufait]

google checkout?

 

[ExpandOnline]

also nochex.co.uk and transx.co.uk offer cheap routes to accepting credit cards but all will take visitor offsite to make payment.

I have some experience of nochex with zencart if it's any help.

Peter

 

[ttmw]

Yeah i've heard of paypal n google checkout etc but dont they make it harder for the customer to buy, and make the shop seem a bit less proffessional?

what im trying to get at is, will i lose customers by not accepting credit cards on my site in your opinion?

 

[Pelenna]

You can accept credit cards through Paypal, no account needed - it can be a good way to test the water. Although in the long run a merchant account can work out cheaper (lower percentage fees).

 

[deniser]

I used Paypal to get the business off the ground without having to pay monthly fees until it worked out cheaper having a merchant account and payment gateway. I have kept Paypal on as a second payment method anyway as some people prefer to use this as checkout is much faster.

I was glad of this in the early days as it took 7 months for my site to feature properly in Google and in the first month I had one order, the next month 5, and then it multiplied from there.

It did put some people off (but not many) but I also offered a Pay by Phone facility which helped but through a terminal in my shop. I don't know if Paypal has the virtual terminal facility which might be an extra consideration.

 

[borobabe]

Paypal does have a virtual terminal but the charges are high if you are only doing a few.
I have signed up recently with transx and they have a virtual terminal, not tested it yet but will be a good option until I get a merchant account set up.

 

[itaufait]

There are also PCI requirements if you process credit cards yourself (as in the customers give *you* the numbers) over the Internet.

 

[PayVector]

I'm thinking of getting into the ecommerce trade and already have a website tand host that will support zen-cart software so i cna get my shop online, but i hear you have to go to a bank to get a merchant account, and i realy dont know much about it.

I hear they are hard to get if you are only online and charge heavily. I realy want to be able to accept credit card payments as i think it will get me alot more business, but i dont want to have to pay a lot to start because i only have 200-300 visitors a day and dont know how well it will do.

Is there any other ways of accepting credit cards or how do i go about getting a merchant account?

We are the preferred & gateway for Zencart in the UK and EU. WE can also broker a merchant account for you. PM me details and we can get you started right away.

 

[RichEmerson]

I've almost finished a website selling adventure DVDs www.upndownfilms.tv. We didn't want to use pay pal and as a start up expected it to be difficult to get a full merchant account. We chose Netbanx after doing a lot of searching on these forums and they have been pretty good. We're using Roman Cart along with Netbanx and it all seems to work pretty professionally. The only issue we've had has been the time it takes to go live. Netbanx told us it was very quick and failed to mention a number of the stages we'd have to go through, which have resulted in the odd extra day delay. It's not the end of the world for us, but we're still not able to accept payments - our target date was last Friday. They tell us we'll be fully live today!

 

[Andybanx]

ttmw, try getting in touch with Netbanx. Customers don't need to have an account and can make one off payments. They offer a merchant account plus gateway service and their rates are quite good.