The Facts about Accepting Card Payments Online |
Posted: March 6, 2016 |
Whether you are opening an e-commerce store or you need to accept online payments for another reason, it is important to understand how this process works. Luckily it isn’t too complicated and even if you are a new start-up, you can set up your website to start accepting card payments almost immediately. Having the ability to accept your customers’ card payments online will help your business to grow and prosper. In the old days, before the internet became such a major part of our lives, people typically paid for goods and services with cash or a check. Now, it is a very different environment and customers are more likely to use their debit or credit card than cash or a check book when they want to make a payment. The Advantages of Accepting Card PaymentsThe great thing about having a payment system on your website is that it doesn’t matter where a customer lives: they can still buy from you. This is idea if you market your goods and services to overseas customers. Local people can call in or call up to make a payment. Someone living on a different continent can’t do that, so not providing an online payment service could lose you a lot of business. How to Accept Online PaymentsThere are two main ways to accept card payments online: the first involves opening a merchant account and the second involves using a third party merchant account provider. A regular business merchant account is ideal for most businesses. A merchant account provider acts as the intermediary between you and the customer. They provide a payment processing hardware and when the customer’s card is swiped or entered into a card reader, the merchant account provider checks the payment details and transfers the money from them to you. The main credit and debit cards accepted through a merchant account are MasterCard and Visa. In order to start using a merchant account, you need to go through an application process. This will involve the account provider assessing your risk level to ensure they don’t end up out of pocket. High-risk businesses are unlikely to qualify for a mainstream merchant account, so they would need to check out a more specialist provider. Use an Online Card ProcessorBusinesses with a storefront will need to open a merchant account in order to process card payments, but if your business is purely online, you have the option of using an online card processor such as PayPal. Third party merchant account providers such as PayPal provide everything you need to be able to process card payments. Customers understand how PayPal works, so there is a high level of trust, but once your business begins to grow, you will find that a service such as PayPal has a number of limitations. Read the Small PrintWhatever method you use, there will be fees to pay, so make sure you read the small print so you know what to charge the customer.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|