Accept Credit Cards w/o Merchant Account ?

[power97]

Hi,
I would like to know if it is possible to accept credit cards without a merchant account and if so how ? I know that it is possible using something similar to Paypal but then the customer needs to sign up with Paypal and it is a bit of an inconvenience.

Thanks

http://www.musicianwanted.ca

 

[DeZiner]

You can of course colect credit cards by asking for them, the merchant account allows you to process the funds on the card and get them to your bank account. PayPal is a merchant account, and simply charge you a higher "discount rate" (the percentage of the sale) than would a standard merchant account. If your doing low volume, look into Microsofts BCentral, with a "Nano" merchant account. I believe it to be about $5 a month with 3% of sales charged. They limit you to about $1000 a month though. If you predict high volume of processing, a merchant account is affordable with $45 a month, 2.35% of sales and $0.30 per transaction.

Bottom line is, without a merchant account, there is no way to get the approval message from the bank and transfer the funds to your account.

Alternatives like paypal also include IBill, 2checkout.com, and others. Low or no monthly but a higher percentage of each sale.

DeZiner
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