NBS Agents >> Merchant Account Agent and ISO Programs

I have a merchant website and a credit card processing service. However, online sales are not coming as I expected. How can I improve my merchant website’s visibility?

Are you sure you have good products ( if you are dealing with product items) or excellent type of service (if you are into services)? You see, people will generally flock to merchant websites which sell hot commodities.
Be sure you deal only with saleable product items.
Also, try to improve on your marketing strategies. You should inform people about your merchant website. There are many ways to improve your website visibility on the Net.
If you want to know more, just visit the link below.

I have a question about how POS or point of sale applications work.
I would do a pre authorization of a customers card and give it to them to add a tip to it.
Then I process it again as a credit card transaction so that it now includes the tip.
Then I do the force at the end of the day to drop the preauthorization?
Is that the normal way it works.

The pre-auth converts to a sale when you finalize the transaction

You much be specific.Is cc short for credit card or commercial credit. my answer for the latter should be no.

I’m starting an internet business and will need to accept credit card payments. Should I use something like paypal or should I just get my own merchant account and payment gateway? From my initial testing, my sales look very promising and I’m expecting a lot of business.

Hi. I had the same decision to make when I was starting my online business so I know what problems you are facing.

At first I used paypal, but then my sales were increasing very quickly and I knew I needed to switch to a merchant account/payment gateway setup to handle the larger volume.

I came across this website, http://www.electronictransferservice.com and they really helped me learn a lot. There’s plenty of information on their pages and I discovered so much about how all this works with processing credit cards. Their FAQ section is definitely worth a look.

I’m not recommending you sign up with them in anyway, but I did contact them and was able to get all my questions about merchant credit card processing answered from a real live person. That was pretty cool.

I eventually went with a different company, but at least I was armed with much more knowledge than when I first started.

I’m thankful to say that my business and sales have been doing well and making the switch was, to me, a good choice. You’ll have to determine for yourself if and when you will make the switch.

One thing though, if your volume of sales is not enough to cover the costs of processing fees, then I would go with paypal and just wait till it does.

Hope that helps and good luck!

What is the easiest way to do credit card processing? Should I open my own merchant account? I’m starting a new business and will need to accept credit card payments.

Hi. I had the same problem when starting my business. What I did was use paypal until my business volume was high enough to open a merchant account.

If you follow the same steps, then I think you will find this site, http://www.merchantaccountbasics.com really helpful.

Now that I have a merchant account and can deposit payments into it, credit card processing is not as difficult as it may seem.

When I get my checks back from my bank, sometimes I see that the memo field has been filled in with an invoice number or some other reference, written by a human during some stage of the merchant processing my check. Can they do this?

Hi,

Yes a merchant can in fact write on your check in any way they want to, as long as it does not change the amount you wrote it for and the name you wrote it to.

I used to own a store, and we would write on peoples checks all the time.

Most often you will see a company stamp, or a computer printer doing the actual marking, but humans can, and sometimes do write on checks as well.

-C
www.clarkcovington.com

I am actually opening a call center and will be processing credit cards. Which bank has the best accounts for this?

they all charge basically the same fees – open a business checking and merchant acct with the same bank you do your personal checking with

I have had beyond a frustrating relationship with paypal. I no longer want to use them. I saw that I can still sell on ebay if I use an online merchant account, however, you have to have a credit card through that
particular merchant processing service.
I would like to continue selling on ebay as soon as possible. I have contacted Merchant one…they are taking forever, I even tried Moneybookers, but they want to send an address verification in the mail, etc. Anyone know a good online merchant processing provider, I can use to sell on ebay that is approved by ebay, and I can start selling within 3 to 5 days. Please help…Best answer 10pts today!!!

Since E-Bay owns PayPal, it is my understanding that you have no choice but to use PayPal. I saw a new site on the news the other night called www.buysellswapstuff.com. They give free 90 day listings and are much cheaper than E-bay. Using the code: free11alive in plan type gives 1 year free listings. I will try them the next time I have something to sell . I resent being forced to use PayPal.

When I took accounting, we learned that credit card companies don’t reimburse merchants for the entire purchase price. Instead, they short the merchant a small cut that they keep for processing the transaction. In my classes, we used 2% for all cards.

But that was many years ago and in academia. In the real world right now, what is the merchant discount for the various credit cards (Visa, Master Card, AMEX, Discover)?

Thanks!

It all depends on your business, the type of transactions you do. Rates can vary, or you can be on a variable rate plan which charges you interchange rates (Interchange rates are decided by Visa Mastercard Association). To get a merchant account, give these guys a call – www.iso4chase.com.

Now as far as AMEX is concerned, they set their own rates as AMEX is not part of the VISA / MC association. Discover used to do that as well, but now merchant processors such as First Data, Chase Paymentech and others can setup Discover accounts for you and keep the charges on that one statement only. Discover has their own interchange charts.

There are different type of pricing plans out there. You can be on a fixed rate, a three / two tiered structure where you get a qualified rate and a non-qualified rate (cards such as corporate cards, rewards card etc do not qualify for qualified rate), you can be on a bill-back structure where you would pay a fixed rate and then the lowest non-qualifying interchange rate or you can be on a Interchange + sort of pricing where you would pay the Interchange rate in addition to a small percentage on top on each transaction. Talk to the people you want a merchant account from to discuss your needs.

Hope this helps.

What are the best ways to find merchants who need credit card processing service or who wish to lower their current rates?

In my experience you have to go to them in person so they can put a face with your name. Maybe you can spend some time on the phone setting up appointments and then visiting them in person to present the paperwork, obtain their statements etc.

Another way is internet marketing. But that is a steep learning curve.