How do I Set up a Merchant Account?

Setting up a merchant account is very important and usually it’s not that hard to do it either. What makes a merchant account great is the fact that it allows your company to accept both credit and debit card payments. Usually you will need to have either an agreement with the bank that they process credit card payments or you can work with an independent sales organization, MSP and so on. Either solution works as long as you collaborate with a dedicated financial institution and have a designated point of sale system.

The first thing you have to do is to determine the way credit card payments will work for your company. This means that you need to figure out the type of credit card payments that you want to accept and how you accept those payments. You need to see if you accept website payments, if you want to use a POS solution or mobile payments. You will also have to think about the amount that you get from credit card sales to begin with.

Aside from that, when you create a new merchant account you will need to think about the merchant payment processing and you will also have to make a comparison between all the services offered to you. This way you will be able to see which one actually delivers the best value for your money, so you should consider that as fast as possible. Each merchant account provider has a flat rate that will be charged each time a payment is processed or it might have a percentage fee based on the total transaction amount.

Sometimes you will see that merchant provider options will have software and payment acceptance solutions. Of course, if you do opt for these merchant services you still need to have something that allows you to be in control. It might be challenging at first, but results will end up paying off quite a bit which is exactly what you want to focus on here. Having control over the way your customers pay is very important so try to keep that in mind.

Some of the merchants will set up your account and they will just require you to undergo a credit check and offer a personal guarantee. The application process might take some time though. Once that is done, the setup process will be completed and results will be impressive for sure. What you will like here is the fact that the process is seamless, once you apply for the merchant account, the provider will take care of everything. If you want to skip on some taxes or just want to deal with companies outside your country, you can work with an offshore account provider.

As you can see, setting up a merchant account isn’t that challenging to begin with. It will take some time though, so try to keep that in mind and it will help you quite a bit which is exactly what you want to have!