Choosing the Right Merchant Account

Merchant accounts are critical to the success of your online success. There is a lot of advice out there about what the best way to accept credit cards is. I used ClickBank exclusively for the first three years I was online. It was easy to set up, the initial cost was minimal, and they had a great reputation. You need to know all your options. Here’s what I did.

ClickBank charges you 7.5% of the sale price of an item plus $1.00 per transaction for any sale you make through their service. That is a pretty hefty amount, but if you don’t want to deal with a merchant account, they may be your best option.

The disadvantage of working with ClickBank is that you are limited to just digital products.

In having my own merchant account, I save over 5% as well as 70 cents per transaction. That is a huge difference. Also, the money is directly deposited into my bank account within two to three days. It’s a really big benefit to be able to get your money faster.

There are other costs when setting up a merchant account. You can pay upwards of $195 for the setup fee (I’ll show you how get one FREE!) on a merchant account, but in the long run, the savings of having your own are huge and I recommend that you look into that.

Another benefit of having your own merchant account is if you have a retail business and accept cards in your store your processing fee is only 1.69% because the actual card is present. But, for all intents and purposes online merchants will be looking at a rate of about 2.29% for all online sales.