Accept Credit Cards Without a Merchant Account

If you are considering selling your services or even tangible products on the web, you must figure out some way of accepting credit card payments. This is often a difficult task for new merchants because most credit card processing sites require you to have a merchant account. That sounds fine if you are certain of the success of your product and can dole out the required fees to set yourself up as a merchant.

But most people who want to sell their products online do not want to go through the hassle of getting a merchant account. So how can you accept credit cards on your website without a merchant account? There are several options. But before mentioning these, consider the reasons for partnering with an online credit card processing company.

1. Credit cards are the most common form of payment for online transactions. If you cannot accept credit cards, you might as well not sell anything online at all. Many customers are also impulse buyers who want to buy your product having read your product description. Not being able to accept instant payment will most likely lose you customers.

2. The international dimension of credit card processing needs to be seriously taken into consideration by any merchant who wants to be successful. If you have overseas customers, the most convenient way to pay for products is with a credit card.

3. The security offered by credit card companies often make people comfortable using them for online transactions.

1) Ask a local bank to open a merchant account for you. Sounds easy enough, but banks usually only allow MERCHANTS to open credit card lines with them. So unless you are incorporated, or have another kind of company, this route is probably closed for you.

2) Partner with a third party vendor. There are third party vendors who can accept credit cards and are willing to accept payments ON YOUR BEHALF. This is the best and the most convenient option for people who are not merchants.

The following is a list of third party vendors. Partnering with them will make it possible for you to accept credit card payments online without you having to go through the hassle and the expense of becoming a merchant. Of course, they charge a small percentage from your sales to cover their expenses and to make a small margin of profit.

Paypal - Paypal is an eBay company and allows you to accept credit cards, but their fees do tend to add up.

e-gold - E-gold is a FREE international payment system which is backed by precious metals. It is not a credit card processor, but many websites (including Yahoo!) accept e-gold payments. Opening an account is FREE.

CCNow- A quick, convenient way to accept credit card payments from your customers.

This guide on how to accept credit cards online without a merchant account will be continually updated. So check back frequently for the most recent update.

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How to accept Credit Cards online