# merchant account and payment processor



## ReiRei (Feb 23, 2009)

Hello.

I am about to finish making my website but I haven't had my merchant account, yet.
I am thinking to accept a payment via Paypal but not only Paypal.

So I have been researching about it and now I am getting confused about "merchant account" and "payment processor"....

First of all, those are 2 different things, right??

The second, if I use cubecart as my shopping cart, does this mean the cubecart is my gateway??? And all I need is a merchant account??

Do I need to check which gateways works with my webhosting company??

Thank you


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## fwynn (Oct 22, 2010)

Good Question! and I second that.


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## Mtnview (Nov 5, 2009)

ReiRei said:


> Hello.
> 
> I am about to finish making my website but I haven't had my merchant account, yet.
> I am thinking to accept a payment via Paypal but not only Paypal.
> ...


I am currently using instantestore for our e commerce. I don't have a ton of products so it is pretty easy to customize. The company we use in our retail store for processing wasn't in the list of processors already set up with them which would cost me some money to set up so I opted to go with PayPal which was in the list. I went with the PayPal Pro to have a seamless look to the purchasing experience. If you use the free PayPal processing the customer has a separate window pop up for payment processing with the PayPal logo and it looks like they need PayPal account to pay even though they can still use a credit card.


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## tfalk (Apr 3, 2008)

Shopping Cart <-> Gateway program <-> Merchant Account

The gateway is nothing more than code/programming that takes the information from your shopping cart, reformats the data to a specific format and passes the request to your merchant account's gateway, then processes the returned information.

It's is MUCH easier to use a merchant account that already works with a specific shopping cart than it is to try to code a gateway file, unless you already know Pearl, CGI or whatever programming language is needed.

Paypal is a merchant account that has a very easy to use and well defined API (Application Program Interface). Their regular account does not have a monthly fee but they charge a higher fee per transaction. They also offer a merchant account with a monthly fee but lower per-transaction costs, cheaper for high volume operations.

Hopefully that's pretty close and explains it a bit better?

I use a cart from commerce-cgi and a merchant account from Payment Resources International/Transaction Central. There was no pre-coded gateway between the two so I took an existing gateway file and figured out how to make the two talk... took me about 3 weeks to get it right and I never used CGI scripts before...


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## Jsaladin (May 23, 2010)

watch you monthly minimum fees when you start looking around, i searched and searched and found a merchant account that has no mounthly minimum abd no batch fees


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## selanac (Jan 8, 2007)

We've used Paypal for years. Many customers are confused with Paypal due to their Membership info. 

We just started with SquareUp.com they're similar to paypal except they also have a card swiper that they send you for free and it attaches to your android or iphone. 

They only have two charges, and you only get one of those two. 2.75% with the credit card in hand, and 3.5% without the credit card in hand. No maintenance, summary, or batch processing fees. NONE.

Paypal's regular service is 3%, but you have to send an email to the customer, and hope they're smart enough to understand it. I've lost a few customers cause they couldn't figure it out. 

The other credit card companies have several fees. If you don't have the card, you have to pay for having the card percentage, and not having one. I use to sell Credit Card Processing, so I know how they trick you.


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## ludicrousman (Oct 1, 2010)

I have a great merchant account company that is great. You'll have your own rep working with you and a lot cheaper then pay pal. Pm me and I can give anyone the info or email me at emailingkevin[USER=36795]@gm[/USER]ail.com. I currently do web development and set all my clients up with this company.


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## ReiRei (Feb 23, 2009)

Thank you for all the replys.

I just made a Paypal business account since it's free and made it work on my website yesterday.

But I am also trying to get another gateway. 
It seems like "Authorize.net" is one of the popular gateways here on T-shirt Forms, so let me use that as an example to ask a few more questions....

If I understand correctly, 

1) "Authorize.net" is a payment processor; they only do the process. So I still need to find a company which will provide a merchant account and which can work with Authorize.net.
Am I right????

2) I found that some of the Merchan account providers let you select the Gateway when you sign-up for the merchant account. I wonder which is better if you sign-up like that or sign-up separately?! ( I mean better to find a merchan account provider and sign-up and then find a gateway and sign-up??)

3) Because the merchant accounts and the payment processors are 2 differnt things, do you have to pay the fees (such as monthly or calcellation or whatever) for both???


I've never done this, so I want to make sure I understand correctly before I even start looking the best compnay for me.

Thank you


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## camisadetenerife (Nov 3, 2010)

Sorry, but I have had a bad experience using Paypal. Unbelievably, it is quite easy to be defrauded by a one time credit/debit card user as they can order goods, receive them, and then claim to the card provider that the card has been used fraudulently. The provider will then issue a complaint to Paypal, and Paypal will leave you high and dry and not support you in any way.

I proved to paypal that the customers had received goods yet they still refunded the card user via the credit card company and left me a lot poorer.

Just google 'paypal scam' and you will find out how many people have been duped this way.


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## 76anajet (Oct 29, 2010)

Just beware and do your research watch out for the additional fees read the fine print.


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## kiwimike (Nov 5, 2010)

i have used paypal for one of my websites, just create your paypal account and then get it verified using a credit card. usually takes a couple of weeks unless you have internet banking.

then goto the merchant tools and create a buy now button using one of there button designs.
enter your price required for each item. aftewr creating your buynow button you will have to copy and paste the script to your website and save the updated info. 
you will have to create a new buy now button for each item you wish to sell. customers can pay using paypal funds of or credit cards, else they can send funds by snailmail the old fasioned way.
hope this helps


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## ludicrousman (Oct 1, 2010)

This is the company I highly recommend.
ICS Integrated Card Services
https://www.icsapplications.com/?p=eZvps4+4rYhS1aEdFfFdxA==
They use Authorize.net
Set up and Application Fee:
$0.00
Customer Support & Statement* Fee:
$5.00 per Month
Gateway Security Fee:
$10.00 per Month (128-bit SSL)
Visa, MasterCard, & Discover Rate:
2.25%
Transaction Fee:
$0.20

They'll also give you a free credit card terminal.

Here's the reps info
Aaron Goodman
Senior Account Executive
Integrated Card Services
Toll Free: 866-925-5007 x 107
fax: 866-328-5407

Tell him Kevin Painchaud referred you

As mentioned before, I currently run a web design/ development company and have set our clients up with him.

Whats GREAT about them, they cheap, they'll throw in QuickBooks, a credit card terminal and you'll have a rep that you work with. That means CUSTOMER SERVICE!!! PayPal will NEVER give you this!

Make sure to tell him Kevin told you to use him. I don't get anything out of it, but he's just a good guy and I'm sure he'd like to know that I am pointing people his way.

Thanks


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## selanac (Jan 8, 2007)

Okay so you're already at 2.45% per transaction, plus two more tiers if you don't have your card with your or online. Also the $15.00 per month for the report & gateway fee. They probably have a Batch Processing fee, and late fee if you don't balance by 5 pm every night. 

Paypal and squareup are a percentage with no other fees. Square Up sends you a free swipe attachment. 

Only draw back for Square up is that you have to have a droid or iphone.


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## ludicrousman (Oct 1, 2010)

Can you use Square as an online merchant account? (Authorize.net) or is it only a card reader?


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## selanac (Jan 8, 2007)

Don't know would have to check. You could have them fill out a form with a few boxes for credit card number, expiration date, CCVC number, and whatever else you need, and once they hit submit it emails to you. You can then submit it via your phone or computer. 

One more thing, I went online and noticed Square Up charges .15 cents per transaction. They didn't have that before so they must have just added it.


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