Selecting An E-Commerce Merchant Account
To accept credit cards as a form of payment on your website you need to have a merchant account. The typical costs include setup costs, monthly fees, per transaction fee, and commission (discount rate). Some merchant account providers also charge non-standard fees (non-qualified charges, remittance costs, refund fees, chargeback fees, monthly minimum fees, statement fees, etc.), so I suggest you read the fine print when you’re selecting your merchant account provider. If you’re just starting to accept credit cards the fees are not going to be negotiable, but as you establish a sales track record you will be able to negotiate a better rate. A very important thing to consider is joining a business association that already negotiated a discount for its members. For example in Canada you can join Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses (www.cfib.ca) to receive a good rate from the start in addition to discounts from many other companies. Below is a comparison of some of the better merchant accounts I worked with. Keep in mind that fees posted are for information purposes only and may not be 100% accurate.
| Ease of setup | Setup cost | Monthly | Commission | Transaction Fee | Other Costs | |
| Moneris – eSelect Plus www.monerisusa.com (U.S.) www.moneris.com (Canada) |
Hard |
$525 |
$52 |
3% |
$0.25 |
|
| ScotiaBank / Paymentech through CFIB www.paymentech.com (U.S.) www.paymentech.ca (Canada) |
Hard |
$175 |
$50.95 |
2.85% |
$0.20 |
$250/year for CFIB membership |
| Optimal Payments www.optimalpayments.com (U.S., Canada and U.K.) |
Hard |
$250 |
0 |
2.8% |
$0.30 |
|
| InternetSecure 1 www.internetsecure.com (International) |
Medium |
$49 |
$45 |
3.49% |
$0.45 |
|
| InternetSecure 2 www.internetsecure.com (International) |
Medium |
$99 |
$25 |
4% |
$1.50 |
|
| InternetSecure 3 www.internetsecure.com (International) |
Medium |
$99 |
$0 |
9% |
$0.00 |
min $25/month |
| PayPal Personal www.paypal.com (International) |
Easy |
$0 |
0 |
4.9% |
$0.30 |
|
| PayPal Premier www.paypal.com (International) |
Easy |
$0 |
$35 |
2.9% |
$0.30 |
3.9%+$0.30 for payments from outside North America |
