Merchant accounts permit merchants to carry out payment transactions for various services over the net. For accepting credit cards on the website there are two ways. The first one is to create your merchant account, but this is comparatively pricey. Besides it involves wide credit checks and paperwork that takes a lot of time to get sanctioned. Luckily, there is an alternate that will enable a person to accept credit cards without merchant account in the name of third party payment processors.

Third party payment processors will be of great help in accepting credit card payments on an individual’s behalf. Rates fluctuate significantly from one provider to another. The third party processors will share your troubles. The services offered by each vary from one party processor to another. Some allow all types of products while various others focus on only hard goods or digital products.

The service providers that will help in accepting credit card without the merchant account are PayPal, Credit Card and Pay Systems. Pay Systems can handle both the products that are shippable and downloadable. Pay pal offers services without any initial fee. This will enable a person to collect money from website sales, clients and auctions. The services of click bank can prove to be an asset to you in case the product can be downloaded. This will also enable to have a free revelation through free of charge listing on their website. It also offers an additional bonus by helping you to built programs that are in affiliated.

The worldwide accessibility of Internet has made it to be used more for commercial purposes than merely a provider of information. In online businesses, the most commonly used mode of payment is credit cards. To have a flourishing online business, it is essential to accept the credit cards online. Though the big organizations that offer their services over the net generally have a merchant account where their transactions are processed but for small businesses it is not easy to possess a merchant account. Getting an online merchant account is even more tiresome than opting for an offline merchant account. This is because, while processing a transaction on the Internet the company neither has any credit card (but just the credit card number), nor any signature of the customer to identify his credibility. So, a viable alternative available to the online businesses that do not have an online merchant account is the third party processing. This refers to the fact that credit card processing without a merchant account online is possible. This is to say that third party accepts and make the payments on the behalf of an organization of an individual. The payment made by the customer takes place in the third party’s merchant account, which is further paid to the retailer or in the account of the concerned individual’s organization. A small commission is being deducted by the third party as a processing fee of the transaction being made. However, the commission charged for processing costs a little more than having one’s own merchant account but in case it is not possible, third party processing is a nice option to be considered.

With the growing use of Internet, online businesses are becoming more and more successful day by day. Most of the share to make this happen goes to credit card payments. Payments through credit card have made business possible not only in local market but also in international markets too. Credit card payments also enjoy an upper hand over the cheque payments as there is no tension of cheque books or mailing out the cheques.  

If you also one of the individuals doing business online and selling the products or services through your website then one of your major concerns must be “how to accept credit cards on your website?”

Two of the possible ways out through which a credit card can be accepted on the website include holding a merchant account or through a third party merchant. For allowing the credit card payment through the merchant account, one requires a bank to open an account and as far as credit card payment through third party is concerned, there are various companies that help in accepting credit card payments. CCBill, CCNow, Clickbank, Digibuy, IBill, Kagi, PayPal, ProPay are some of the companies that charge some amount of fees and offer credit cards facilities. 

However, the fluctuation of rates is significant, so a person should make a comparative and an extensive study before opting for any. Some of the companies will focus solely on hard goods while others consider all kinds of goods. The Paypal accepts the payment of credit card online devoid of any beginning fee. Similarly CCBill also does not charge for the set up. The fee for the transaction varies in accordance with the sales volume.

There are two options on processing the payments that you receive through your business website. The first option is having your own merchant account and the second option is to have a go for a third party payment processor. As a professional web business it is always advisable to have a merchant account. A third party processor also solves the purpose of payment processing and it is good for small businesses where the payment transaction is not very high. Let us check the positives and the negatives of both the options.

A merchant account can be either applied from a Merchant Service Provider or directly from a bank. If you are an established business and have a decent turnover in the past banks in all probability will offer you a Merchant Account. The other option is to apply a merchant account from a MSP. Third party payment processors are good option for businesses which have small business turnover and are new in business. The third party payment processor will do the entire transaction after the credit card details of the customer are submitted. They will charge a fee for the transaction and the money will be credited to your bank account. If the risk involved in your business in less with few chances of a chargeback then a third party processor is the better option. The charge associated with a third party processor is suitable for a small business. If you have your own merchant account it gives a more professional outlook to the business.