How do you find the merchant account that right?

[LiviLou]

Lately, I've done a lot of research on merchant accounts. I have discovered that paypal is having lawsuit problems, and most of the others charge not only a monthly fee but recieve a percentage of the charge as well. I am just one individual trying to make a difference to sick children. I do not have a lot of capital to work with. What is someone like me to do?

[cyanide]

Originally Posted by ImaDunce

Lately, I've done a lot of research on merchant accounts. I have discovered that paypal is having lawsuit problems,

I think Paypal will always have these types of problems.
hmmm, didn't you post something like this before? deja-vu, perhaps?
And in my opinion, really there's hardly a risk to you. When accepting donations, people are handing you money of their own choice and amount -small amounts I would estimate. And you would adjust your service based on these amounts received, whereas a business would suffer, because they've already sent out the product only to find that Paypal has witheld the monies owing.

Originally Posted by ImaDunce

and most of the others charge not only a monthly fee but recieve a percentage of the charge as well. I am just one individual trying to make a difference to sick children. I do not have a lot of capital to work with.

Yep! + flat-rate/transaction, + + +

Originally Posted by ImaDunce

What is someone like me to do?

Well, if accepting credit card payments were super cheap, then paypal wouldn't exist and really, quite frankly, I think it's your only option.
As alternatives, You may want to check out affiliate programs or even sign up with AdSense

In all honesty ( I know you didn't ask for a site review) but I don't think your site is really conducive to accepting donations. I know that I didn't feel the need to pull out my credit card.

[Corey Bryant]

Check out www.sporg.com - they might be able to help you. We are in talks right now to offer a merchant account at a lower rate but you have the CC processor & the gateway to deal with.

You can also check with other third party systems as well. A lot do not charge a monthly fee, but charge a higher discount & transaction rate.

[flood6]

This is definitely not a recommendation, but you may want to look into www.2checkout.com . They have all kinds of issues, at least a two-week wait to get paid, dodgy customer service, and like a 5.5% rip on each transaction plus like a $0.45 transaction fee. But with them, you can accept all major and some minor credit cards and checks. And it is only a one-time setup fee of like $50.

I was using it just to accept checks and my real merchant account took the credit cards. I don't use them anymore, but I still have the account as a backup.

Again, I'm not singing their praises, but it might be an option for you.

[merchant34]

Sorry-

[merchant34]

You might want to try finding a company that has been in business for over 5 years.This seems to be the best!

[jeraman]

I use http://www.paysystems.com. They have a $50.00 set-up fee, but then no monthly use fee, payout every week, and charge between 2.5% and 5% of your transaction. You choose the percentage when you set the account up. I have found their catalog and quick sale systems easy to link in to my web site. They build the HTML code and you paste it into your code.

You can sign up for a free trial account and test their system out. Everything works except the final card authorization. They void the purchase.

They are a good site when you are just starting out and have low initial sales.

Good Luck,
Ron
http://www.myhistories.com
Heraldry, History, and Tools for the Family Historian

[Corey Bryant]

I am working also on a some tips right now actually. Paysystems is good for a third party processor. But if you are processing over $1,000 a month steadily, you should consider your own merchant account.

[brandblast]

Most of our e-commerce clients choose http://e-onlinedata.com for their merchant account provider, great rates and service.

[my74]

Here is the one I currently use. They have many options. The one I chose has no monthly fees and is cheaper than Propay and Paypal. They offer Mastercard,Visa, Discover, and American Express. the fee is higher for American Express.

http://www.discoverbiz.com/

[Shift4SMS]

Originally Posted by ImaDunce

Lately, I've done a lot of research on merchant accounts. I have discovered that paypal is having lawsuit problems, and most of the others charge not only a monthly fee but recieve a percentage of the charge as well. I am just one individual trying to make a difference to sick children. I do not have a lot of capital to work with. What is someone like me to do?

I know you did not ask for a site review but when I accessed your page I received about 20 or so JavaScript error pop-ups. I think most, if not all said "blah-dee-blah...expected ;".

As much as I despise PayPal, I think they are your best option unless and until you start processing more than $500-$1000 per month. Somewhere in this dollar range is a break-even point when the cheaper discount rate of a real merchant account will cover the cost of the fixed monthly fee. With credit cards, nothing is free. You will be paying on the front end with fixed monthly fees or you will be paying on the back end with higher discount rates.

One last note, there are other costs to consider when using third party solutions: To many people, not having a real merchant account comes across as flaky or fly-by-night. This is a hard number to calculate because how do you calculate how much business (or donations) you lost when you never had them to begin with? Very few people will e-mail you saying "PayPal sucks! Do you have another way to accept payments?", instead, they will simply go elsewhere.