How to Choose a Merchant Account Provider

It can seem overwhelming to select a merchant account provider to handle the credit card payments from your customers.  Businesses that accept credit cards as a method of payment have reported 50-400% increased sales over not accepting cards, so it's typically in your best interest to accept credit cards as payment.  This article should provide you with enough information to make an educated decision.

There are numerous providers of merchant accounts, which only serves to make it more difficult to narrow down the choices and pick the best one for your needs.  While some businesses use their bank as their merchant account provider, there is actually no real benefit of doing this.  Banks aren't as up to date in the technology world, especially when dealing with website ecommerce and the wireless processing needs of many new businesses.  Banks that offer merchant services typically outsource the operation to a merchant account provider anyway, so you are probably better off going directly to a merchant account provider for lower rates and improved customer service.

When determining if a merchant account provider is reputable, you should first check with the Better Business Bureau report to see if there have been many complaints made from people using that company.  If you see tons of complaints on the business operations, you'll know to look for a merchant account provider elsewhere.

The best merchant account providers offer a 100% money back guarantee on their services, to give you the opportunity to test out their services for a period of time.  It's the only way to determine whether or not their services matches what you need and what they promise they can provide.  You should only work with providers that are reputable enough to provide a 100% money back guarantee.

Look closely at the merchant account providers customer service options.  Can you call a toll free number?  What hours can you receive support?  Many providers offer 24/7 support- which is valuable for internet businesses that have no "open/closed" signs to put out!  What are current and previous customers of the merchant account provider saying about the service they received?

You will also want to look at their fee schedule.  The fees should be reasonable and if you find a provider with fees that are MUCH lower than the average rates you've found, chances are they are going to hit you with hidden fees.  Beware of companies that charge unnecessary fees like an application fee, installation fee, annual fee, set up fee or programming fees.  These are common fees charged by merchant account providers but most reputable providers do not charge these fees. 

Make sure you understand your own needs for a merchant account provider.  You don't need to pay for international credit card processing if you don't have a need to charge international customer's credit cards.  On the other hand, if you think you will be selling internationally, be sure the provider you select will allow you to process these credit cards and find out what fees are associated with international credit card processing.

Be careful of providers that  put a ceiling on how many transactions you can process monthly, or a dollar amount maximum.  It would be horrible to have the best month of sales ever and suddenly you can't accept any more credit cards because you've reached your monthly limits!

Choosing a provider that meets your technical requirements and has a proven record for providing reliable service can be done if you do your research.  Don't sign up with the first provider you find, check fees and compare features among the providers you've looked at and you'll find one that will help you grow a successful business operation.