A merchant account is set up with a financial institution to allow you to accept credit card payments directly from your clients. Unlike with most third-party services, money collected through your merchant account is deposited directly into your checking account.

Specifically: A merchant account is an industry term describing that a business owner / merchant and a bank have contracted to accept credit card payments. Establishing an account with a bank, Independent Service Organization (ISO), or Merchant Service Provider (MSP) allows you to process credit card transactions or electronic payments received from your customers. The bank, ISO, or MSP will deposit the sale proceeds into your business checking account, less a small commission.

You need a merchant account if you want to take credit card payments from your clients using your own business name, and having the money deposited directly into your own business checking account. Once you have your own merchant account you can either:

Have a customer order directly on your own web site using a shopping cart,

or,

use the virtual terminal (included with our service) to do a manual swipe of a credit card by entering the card details and amount to charge, just like in a real brick and mortar store.

Either way, the money will end up directly in your own account without any intermediaries (no middle man).

Yes, you can accept debit cards on your website.

There is a $0.25 Authorization Fee per transaction. Visa and Mastercard also charge a 2.29% transaction fee. If you are a US retail merchant then the transaction fee is 1.79%.

For mid- or non-qualified transactions there will be an additional 1.99% fee. (See "What is the difference between qualified, mid-qual, and non-qual transactions?" for information about these types of transactions)

All of the money processed through your merchant account will be deposited directly into the business checking account of your choice.

Funds are deposited directly into your checking account, typically within 24 - 48 hours, depending on how you want to process them.

Once an application is completed and required documents submitted, the underwriting process takes approximately 24 hours depending on the type of merchant. The typical setup for an internet merchant is 48 hours from application to deployment.

Yes!

Yes, our VeloCT payment gateway is fully compatible. You can find the integration information at http://www.oscommerce.com/community?contributions=&search=veloct&category=1

Very safe! AVS and fraud checking are usually included. (AVS = Address Verification System) The credit card can be verified to be valid, the address can also be used to verify that the correct owner is actually ordering and in addition, the security code on the card can be used to make sure the person ordering actually has the card in his/her physical possession. Credit card blacklist, email, IP address, dot extension screening, AVS, CVV2 data, and risk management controls such as credit card hacking attempts by hour, day, month and location are being monitored/tracked.

To get a merchant account:

1. You need a Web Site.
   Don't have one yet? Click: http://www.ixwebhosting.com/index.php/v2/pages.planUnlimitedPro
   to get one now!
   
   
2. You will also need a SSL Certificate, don't worry, if you host with us, you'll get a shared one for free!
   
   
3. A yearly PCI compliance check, again, don't worry, if you get your merchant account through us, you'll get this included for free!
   
   
4. Other things you need to have:
   • A privacy policy on your Web Site. It should state at the least that you do not give away any information regarding your clients and keep their information confidential.
   • A refund policy which must include a 30-day refund guarantee must be available on the web site. Excluded from such a policy are items such as flowers, food, etc. as well as special orders (special configurations, etc.)

Sure, why not? But then why wouldn't you just host with us? It would certainly make the site integrations much easier. If you host elsewhere, you'd have to use that other hosting company's support to get this to work, as we do not supply tech support for other hosts. Plus, you can use our Web Design Services to integrate your shopping cart and merchant account etc. starting at only $80.

Not necessarily. Your site's traffic is not dependent on your ability to offer merchant services, but on the fact that people will find your site. This is usually done via SEO/SEM (Search Engine Optimization / Search Engine Management) services you can order separately. However, the fact that you do take credit cards will make your site a much more successful business endeavor.

That's a function of your shopping cart software, not of merchant services. Most shopping cart softwares will let you set up shipping cost for items, groups of items, flat rates, individual rates, and so on. This should therefore be very easy and flexible to implement. If you are hosting with us via the Business Plus or Unlimited Pro plans, you will already have osCommerce software included and are ready to go.

Face-to-face transactions where the credit card is swiped is considered less risky by banks. Since this is the case, rates are quite a bit lower as the instances of fraud and charge-backs are a lot less.

No, this practice is known as "credit card laundering" or "factoring." It is against the Visa® and MasterCard® agreement. Using someone else's merchant account to process your credit card transactions can lead to heavy fines and perhaps more. In addition, you'll also put that merchant's credit card processing account in jeopardy.

A chargeback is the word for reversing a transaction. In other words, rather than adding money to your account it is deducted. Chargebacks can occur for a wide variety of reasons, such as double-charging, credit card expiration, bank error and customer disputes. A chargeback usually occurs when a customer disputes a charge on their statement by contacting the credit card company instead of contacting you. If a customer does not recognize the charge on their statement, or if they believe the amount was wrong, they may call their credit card company and ask them to investigate. Thus begins the chargeback. The merchant bank will charge you a fee for the retrieval of information, and if it is determined that the customer is right, there will be another fee for the chargeback itself. The customer will be refunded their money directly through the credit card company and your checking account will be debited. Eventually, if your account has excessive chargebacks, the bank may choose to cancel your account. The more you do to protect yourself against chargebacks, the better off you will be...

The User Guide and API are available for our payment gateway on request and are also supplied to each merchant when they receive their approval notification and set-up information.

Discount rates are basically a percentage that is taken from the charge that is being processed. For example, if your discount rate is 1.79% and you have an order for $100, the discount rate being deducted would be $1.79.

Other countries are not yet supported.

We have a 98% approval rate, so it's very unlikely that you wouldn't get approved. We will go over all the details of your business before you apply, so we will do our best to be sure that you will get approved.

The rates for merchant accounts vary based on the amount of risk involved in the transaction. The accounts with the lowest rates will always be the ones where the customer is present and the card is swiped and a receipt signed in a face to face transaction. The credit card companies view these types of transactions to be fairly low in risk for fraud, whereas internet transactions and transactions where orders are taken by phone or mail are generally considered higher risk since the customer is not present and the card is not in hand.

You do not pay a monthly statement fee with us! Everything is included in your monthly fees.

The gateway fee is charged by the real-time processor you have chosen for your account. Charges for gateways vary from $10 to $20 per month depending on which gateway you are using.

You do not pay a monthly gateway fee, because with our service everything is included!

We can help all types of businesses - retail, professional, mail order, Internet order, trade shows, SOHO etc.

We have one of the highest rates for helping business owners acquire merchant accounts and the ability to accept credit cards with all types of credit ratings. It is very likely that we will be able to get your new merchant account approved.

When you get a merchant account you will be set up to accept Visa, Master Card and ATM debit cards. You can also apply to accept American Express and Discover credit cards.

Although it is helpful if you do have a business license, you do not need to have a license, a registered trade name or dba certificate to have a merchant account to process credit cards.

An Address Verification System means that we will verify the address given for the order, whether it is through the mail, internet, or over the phone. This is because you don’t want to send out your product to a false address and have a charge back added to your account. This system verifies that the address the customer gives on the order and that of his/her credit card are the same. In the event of a stolen card being used, this system will not permit the order to be shipped to any other address than that of the cardholders billing address.

By processing an Authorization-Only (often referred to as "Auth-Only") transaction, you are simply obtaining authorization for requested charges to a card, without immediately designating the transaction for batch settlement. Such a transaction type is useful for merchants who ship products and need to ensure that they receive all necessary address information.  After submitting authorization only transactions, you can select them for batch.  Batch is nothing more than taking all the credit card orders you completed that business day and submitting them all at one time, usually at the end of the business day.

When an authorization code has been obtained for a transaction, a merchant can capture these funds using the Capture Only method. The transaction will then be settled in the next Batch.

Qualified discount rate is applied for all transactions meeting the "normal" operating guidelines as outlined below:

	All Merchants
	Close batches daily
	Retail (Terminal) Merchants
	Magnetically swiped & electronically authorized charges
	Internet / MOTO Merchants
	Electronically authorize charges using AVS and including order numbers for Visa and MasterCard transactions

Mid-Qualified discount rate is applied for all transactions meeting the operating guidelines as outlined below:

	Retail (Terminal) Merchants
	Manually keyed orders using AVS & order number on Visa and MasterCard transactions.
	Internet / MOTO Merchants
	There is no mid-qual rate for Internet / MOTO merchants.

Non-Qualified discount rate is applied for all transactions meeting the operating guidelines as outlined below:

	All Merchants
	Not Closing batches daily Not using AVS & providing order numbers on manually keyed or Internet transactions for Visa Cards High Risk Merchants (Visa Transactions Only) Following Card Types:   Business and Corporate cards MasterCard/Visa Business cards Procurement cards (Government) Visa Signature cards MasterCard World cards

The advantages we offer, amongst other things, are:

• U.S. domestic
  
• Accept ALL major credit & debit bankcards
  
• Single-source Internet & retail merchant services, no different contacts for different service suppliers
  
• Unbeatable fraud protection & payment gateway security
  
• Account setup & deployment within 24-hrs of approval
  
• In-house Risk & Underwriting departments
  
• Competitive low rates & no hidden fees
  
• Real-time Internet payment processing
  
• Customized & pre-packaged gift card programs
  
• ACH-based electronic check processing
  
• FREE 24 / 7 customer support & technical support
  
• FREE shipping & deployment of equipment / software