Going World Wide: Internet Merchant Accounts

Are you ready to open your business to the world market? If so, it’s time to open an Internet merchant account.

An Internet Merchant Account allows your business to accept credit cards such as Visa, MasterCard and American Express over the World Wide Web. Simply put, it takes the money from your on-line customer and places it into your bank account.

An Internet merchant account works in conjunction with two other components to form your online business. The first is the Payment Gateway, which is an on-line system for real time processing of credit cards. It gives you the ability to accept customer-billing information before the credit card is actually billed. The Second step is building a website.

Each financial institution will charge differently for the Internet merchant account they provide. For example, some institutions have application fees while others do not. However, nearly all Internet merchant providers require a monthly fixed fee or “statement fee.” Additionally, there are fixed transaction fees, discount rates, and miscellaneous fees that vary in cost from provider to provider.

It’s important to be aware that even if you already have a merchant account set up with a financial institution for your brick-and-mortar business, you will most likely need to set up a new Internet merchant account with a different institution. This is because many non-Internet based financial institutions are concerned about online fraud and identity theft.  However, this concern has forced Internet Merchant Account providers to make staggering technological innovations in fraud protection and identity verification measures that protect both the customer and the merchant.

With an Internet merchant account, the world is literally open to you.