Saturday, August 1, 2009

Do You Need A Cheap Merchant Account?

By Joe Mears

There is a huge industry out there catering to people who want to accept payments through credit cards. The thing is, going out and getting yourself a merchant account you really need to keep your wits about you because there are many companies that employ what could be described as aggressive sales tactics to get you to sign up.

The cheapest accounts are not necessarily the ones that advertise the lowest rates. Your account will be subject to a number of fees, including transaction fees and percentage rates as well as extras like statement fees.

In the case of many of the less reputable companies the rate they advertise is actually a discount rate that you can only achieve when certain factors are met or that you can only have for a certain time period.

In the industry the actual rate that gets charged always relies on a variety of factors which will include, the type of credit card that is used and where the order is placed from.

Also, many providers require people to sign onto long term contracts which keep them tied into accounts and have hefty termination fees. This is never a good thing.

This is why I always make a point of recommending to people that they only consider using companies that are prepared to offer them consultations into their accounts rater than just sales.

The way this works is that they will go through with you everything that could potentially be a charge or affect your account in any way. This means that you will go away with a full understanding of all the different factors involved.

Then you are in a proper position to make a decision on a cheap merchant account and the best provider for you.

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