Merchant Gateway Payments are a Smart Investment for Your Business

Anyone doing business on the Internet needs to think about getting a merchant account. Unless your business is no more than a hobby, a merchant account is fundamental to your success. This type of business account allows you to take credit card payments directly on your website. There are payment services that are popular at auction sites as well as fixed listing sites, but these are not true merchant accounts since they allow you to take a credit card payment only through a third party.

Offline stores take credit cards and process these transactions face to face with their customer. You give the cashier your credit card and they can verify your card with your picture identification. A debit card can be swiped and a pass PIN number entered on a keypad; however, when a credit card is taken over the Internet, no such identification is available, making credit card transactions riskier than those done offline.

There are businesses that specialize in online transactions and offer merchant gateway payments that combine the features of an offline merchant account with a gateway for processing the payments from your website. These payments are secure for your customers, and because of built-in safeguards, can help lower the risk of fraud. Online businesses can suffer significant losses from unauthorized credit card use, as well as chargebacks.

Having a merchant account will demonstrate that your business is professional and legitimate. Once you begin to offer customers the option of paying with their credit or debit cards directly on your site, you will start to see an increase in sales.

When shopping for a merchant service, pay close attention to how long the company has been in business. The experience that comes over time is important in payment processing. You will also need to pay attention to the types of clients that a company will accept; there are some types of online businesses that a payment service will not engage in, while others are open to all legal businesses.