Merchant account suggestions

[hypoclear]

I'd like to know what merchant accounts people have had good experience with or would recommend.

We are a home soft goods and furnishings online business not opened yet and a yahoo store. We are directed to the higher end of that market both in design and product.

I am concerned about limits on accepting payment should this take off and any hidden charges. I have narrowed my list down to about 3, but I'm not sure if I can post those names here.

Thanks.

Mark

[StevenAllen]

Mark,

Yes, you are 100% correct that many merchant processors play a revenue shell game. When looking at any merchant processor you need to be ask about the charges for:

1) AVS Fees.
2) Batch fees.
3) Non - qualified AKA up charges.(this can comprise 30% of a merchants monthly costs).
4) Initiation fee.
5) Term of contract fee.
6) Chargeback fees ONLY when applicable.
7) ACH funding time.
8) Annual fee.
9) Per transaction convenience fee for Amex or Discover.
10) Set up fee.
11) Application fee.

Then when you have defined all of the above then and only then ask about discount rate and cost per transaction rates. Yes, there are also strategies that can be employed to make sure you do not exceed the expectations of your business. I own 5 Yahoo stores and have some direct experience that can be helpful. I can discuss this with you further if you care to drop me a line.

I hope that helps?

[Corey Bryant]

It depends on where your business is based, etc. A lot of processors now consider furnishings high risk. Usually funding is within 24-48 hours. But being high risk or possibly international, the funding might be delayed 5 business days.

There really never should be any type of an application fee for a CC processor. An electronic gateway is another story.

If you are based in the US - the major gateways are Authorizenet.com, LinkPoint, and Verisign. Having wirked with all three for some time LinkPoing is still one of the most stable. I have worked with LinkPoint for about 3 years - in that time, it went down once in January 2002 due to an upgrade. With authorizenet.com, we have worked with it for about one year. It has been down twice, once in November and one in July. With Verisign, we only have been working with them for about 6 months. No problems.

Your gateway is just as important - if not more so than the processor. The gateway is what interacts with your client.

[StevenAllen]

Authorizenet is one of the largest and most popular providers of the gateway. We can process an application for Authorizenet in an hour, but it takes quite a bit longer to approve a merchant account. They are both important, but the provider of the gateway is not advancing funds to you and is far more simple when it comes to any surcharges.