Credit Card Merchant Fee

People new to online business would ask what is merchant account. Merchant account is a special agreement with a bank that allows you to pay/accept credit payment. In doing online business you need to provide yur customer payment options that makes them comfortable about the transaction. Credit card payment are the most popular method of online paymet and the way the accept credit card payment is thru merchant account

Choosing merchant account is hard when you are just starting up but you should be careful with companies that offer a seemingly low rates because there are many factors you should consider before choosing a merchant account that will suit your needs. There are few list of acceptable merchant fees you should expect. One is statement fee; its an ongoing monthly charge to cover the processing cost per month. Discount Rate is the percentage of each sale that is given to the merchant account provider. Transaction Fee is a set of charge for each credit transaction which is separate to the discount rate and is not dependent on the value of the sale. Good rates are important but its not the only part of the selection process.

There are many merchant account available but you will need to choose one that works for your e-commerse site and also affordability of the merchant. Prices vary from one company to another, industry standards set-up and activation fee ranges from $45-$250, and usually non refundable. The average number of days it takes to recieve the funds is usually 3-5 days. Qualified discounts rates and transactions rates are at 2.29%+.$030 and annual fees varies from $45.00-$75.00. Those are average standard rates.

PCI compliant is also one thing to consider. It is a security standard that Visa and Mastercard mandate to ensure protection of cardholder data. You must check your merchant provider if they are PCI compliant. According to Visa there are four merchant levels based on the transaction volume in a 12 month period. Level1 for merchant processing over 6 million annually, Level 2 for merchant processing from 1 million to 6 million, Level 3 should at least be 20,000 to 1 million processing and less than 20000 processing for Level 4. Security is one of the most important things to consider in getting a merchant because consumers trust can make or break a business.