Posts Tagged ‘Merchant Account’

Selecting An E-Commerce Merchant Account

Monday, October 6th, 2008

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

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