Setting Up Your Own Merchant Account

Setting up your own merchant account is not necessary.  However, if you are in one of the direct marketing programs, with high profit margins, where customers pay you directly, then it is highly recommended that you set up a merchant account.

In my experience, 85% of the people use Paypal and 15% will send you a Money Order or Bank Draft.  You can also use your own merchant account if you already have one or accept wire transfers to your bank account.

The best option is to use Paypal if your prospect already has an account.  Paypal is very easy to use if your prospect already has a Paypal account.

We do not recommend Stormpay.  

2Checkout.com is one of the only merchant account options if you are international/outside the United States (like myself).  When you are applying for a merchant account through them, present your product as your own and refer to it an an "educational course."  You may have problems accepting payments for "seminars" through 2checkout.  But I prefer to get those by Money Order or Bank Wire anyhow.

They are widely used by digital software providers in the Internet Marketing world, and are very flexible.

 

Those three credit card processing options should be enough for most people.  However, you can also open a merchant account with a bank.  

(Just because your webhost has shopping cart and merchant account integration does not mean that that is a merchant account.  You will need a merchant account anyway.)

 

Other Merchant Options:

You can also accept wire transfers directly to your bank account.  Contact your bank for details, and you can confirm using this free service.

You can also accept checks by fax.  You can use this check software to do it.

Of course, another simple way is to ask your prospect to send you a Money Order or Bank Draft with certified funds.  I have also used Western Union and MoneyGram to receive funds.

 

The ideal situation is to offer as many options as possible.  You want to make it as easy as possible for your prospect to complete the credit card transactions smoothly and successfully.

 

 

For Canadian Merchant Accounts, try PaymenTech or InternetSecure.  US Merchant accounts are much easier to obtain.  Just do a search in the searchbox on the top left of this page, or try LinkPoint.

Another merchant that works in Canada is FastTransact.

Amazon is coming out with a new payment system called Amazon Flexible Pay, but right now it is still in beta.  Google Checkout is another option.