Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Accepting Credit Card Payments Online

By Justin Harrison

It is very important for online business owners to offer the options that customers want. Credit card payments are the most convenient payment method for consumers, and while having several payment options gives the user a choice, websites which accept credit cards show higher revenues from sources such as impulse buys.

Credit cards payments can be accepted by an ecommerce site in two different ways. The prefered way is to use a third-party processor and the later is to establish a merchant account with a bank.

Many banks will offer merchant accounts and processing gateways to their account bearers; the main disadvantage of which being that approval for merchant accounts is much more stringent for internet based businesses than it is for traditional retail.

A merchant account becomes unnecessary when using services such as PayPal, and these services will give you on-time and prompt processing of payments with the ability to transfer the money to your account for a minimal charge, normally a flat fee plus a portion of the total transaction amount.

Due to this, Paypal provides an excellent service that allows you to take credit cards, and it also provides a shopping cart that sites owners can install on their site, it also provides currency conversion in real time, and it is capable of taking payments in the forms of electronic debits or echecks.

If you want to begin accepting credit card payments the fastest route to do so is with a third party service like PayPal, which is more affordable and a great alternative to traditional banking options.

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