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How to Accept Credit
Cards
The Best, Easiest AND
Cheapest Way! How to accept credit cards is one of the
biggest questions people starting their own online business usually
have.
The people selling you stuff will try to make it seem
like you must buy a lot of stuff you don't really need in order to accept credit
card payments from your customers. Don't be fooled.
Unless you are a big business you likely don't need everything 'they'
say you do. They are just trying to get as much money from you as
they can.
Some people want to know a lot of info about how to
accept credit cards and some just a little so click the link below that
best fits you.
The Three
Most Popular Ways to Accept Credit Cards
The three ways most people accept credit cards on
their website are the following:
1. Merchant Account. This is what
most companies will try to sell you. With a merchant account you
deal directly with the credit card processors. This requires an
ongoing monthly fee, a gateway fee and a transaction fee. It
requires a LOT of technical expertise and is expensive both initially
and on an ongoing basis.
I DO NOT
RECOMMEND MERCHANT ACCOUNTS UNTIL YOU MAKE AT LEAST $5,000/MONTH FROM
ONLINE SALES.
2. Third Party Gateway - With this
option, another company called a 'gateway' has an arrangement with the
credit card companies and lets you sell items under their merchant
account.
3. Pay Pal - Pay Pal is a third party
gateway but it's in a class by itself for reasons I mention below.
The Pros and Cons of Most Popular Ways of Accepting Credit Cards
Merchant Accounts
Pros: I can't think of one right
now. There aren't a lot of pros for using merchant accounts if you
are just starting out.
Cons: There are a LOT of them.
Here are a few:
- Very expensive to set up and
requires ongoing fees
- Requires a LOT of techie
capability. You will most likely need to hire someone to set
it up for you.
- Requires advanced website
capabilities so you will pay more for your website hosting fee.
- Requires a SSL certificate - another yearly fee
- YOU are responsible for maintaining security on
your website so if a hacker gets in and gets your customer's credit
card information YOU are responsible.
There are a lot more reasons why using a merchant
account for your online business doesn't make sense but you get the
gist. You don't need a merchant account if you are just starting
out regardless of what anyone tells you. Later on, once you make
at least $5,000/month from online sales you can decide if getting one is
worth the hassle.
Third Party Gateways
Pros:
- Cheap - usually costs about $50 or so for set up
- They handle the security of your customer's
credit card information so you aren't responsible
Cons:
- Can be time consuming to set up if you aren't
technically-inclined
- Requires you to put html code into your website's
source code section which can sometimes be difficult for non-techies
An example of a third party gateway is
2checkout.com They
are the best of the bunch if you go this route.
Pay Pal
Pay Pal
is a third party gateway but it isn't a typical one. It's the
best and most popular way to collect money online. It's owned by
Ebay and has been around for years. It is the best option for most
new website owners.
If you use Pay Pal MAKE SURE to sign up for their Free
Business Account (not the personal one.) The personal one doesn't
let you accept credit cards from non-Pay Pal members. The business
one is the one you want. It's free.
Pros:
- FREE to set up
- Very easy to use
- Works with most website shopping carts so you
don't need to deal with the hassle of importing html codes.
You just put your pay pal address and the shopping cart creates the
codes for you. No techie knowledge needed.
- Very good security mechanisms. Pay Pal has
a very good fraud detection department which reduces the chances of
someone using a fraudulent card or making a bunch of bad purchases
at your site.
Cons:
- Doesn't work with all businesses. Make sure
to check the list of acceptable businesses they provide to make sure
that you can accept credit cards using their service. Most
businesses are okay but some aren't like network marketing, etc.
The Best, Easiest and Cheapest Way to Accept Credit Cards
It's no surprise that I recommend
Pay Pal. They are FREE and
easy to use. They are the best choice for 99.99% of all people who
are starting out with a new internet business.
You can always upgrade to a merchant account later on
when you start making $5,000 or $10,000/month from your online business
but there is no sense paying extra money or monthly fees until you need
to.
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