I’ve ran my own business for over 5 years, and have worked with hundreds of other business’ since graduating college and going out on my own. One thing I can tell you is that finding a merchant provider is not easy, despite what you may hear there is no clear cut option; all have there ups and downs. But I will provide a short list of companies I think would suite you well based on several factors.

Overall:

Prosper Merchant Services – http://www.prosperms.com/
-Good customer service, excellent accounts, smaller atmosphere where your not as pressured or forced to adhere to there standards. They have great chargeback programs and fraud prevention, but lack the backing of some of the larger banks so if your processing $250,000+ a year they might not be the best option. In addition they don’t have quite as many features, but I like being treated like a customer and having someone to go to if I need it who knows Me on a first name basis.

Feature Packed:

Merchant Express – http://www.merchantexpress.com/
-One of the bigger merchant providers out there, tons of features and backing by some of the biggest names out there. Perfect if you run a very large business or just like working with the biggest, they really lack the small atmosphere that some people like. And if you want first hand customer support you can forget about it, I’ve found they are a good merchant provider but honestly seem to care more about themselves than the business’ the work with.

Ease of Use:

Paypal – http://www.paypal.com/

Oh yeah the giant of internet payments and credit card processing. Usable by everyone, extremely easy to setup, and a great solution for anyone who just sells occasionally or wants to provide tons of payment options. However many have had problems working with PayPal, myself included. Especially business users, they just aren’t a good solution as a sole payment provider; many use them in addition to merchant accounts for small purchases or people who refuse not to use them.

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Recommendation:

Personally I would recommend finding a merchant provider, and also having accounts with PayPal and Google Checkout… the more options you provide to your customers the better off you are, and the more likely it is to close a sale with a happy buyer. No option is perfect, but combine them all and be careful with who your working with and I’m sure you’ll be happy with the ending.
References :
Business Owner for 5+ years, experienced payment expert.

I found http://www.merchantaccountbasics.com and it has a lot of info on fees and other stuff so I think it’s worth taking a look, I know I learned a lot from it.

Anyway, I’m gonna stick with paypal for now and wait till my business grows big enough to support using my merchant account for processing credit cards.

Good luck, hope that helps.
References :

USBank is good. Had them for million of years.
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