An E-commerce Web Hosting Account Makes Accepting Credit Cards Easy

The big advantage of setting up your own merchant account is that you will pay a lower Credit Card Fee for each credit card transaction you process - ranging from 1.5% to 4% depending on the issuer of the credit card. Visa and MasterCard typically charge less than Discover and American Express. The downside is that setting up a merchant account will cost you up to $1500 upfront for the fees, equipment and software for dialup and processing via your computer.

Your alternative is to process your payments through a third-party payment facility which will charge you anywhere from 6% to 15% per transaction. Depending upon the dollar amount and number of transactions you will be handling, setting up your own merchant account may make more sense since it could pay for itself fairly quickly in saved transaction fees.

In addition to the Credit Card Fee, there can also be other fees associated with your merchant account, so be sure you understand exactly what you will be charged by your merchant provider. Often there is a Transaction Fee charged by the merchant provider to cover their costs of network usage, equipment, etc. A Transaction Fee can add as much as $1.00 to each transaction on top of the percentage charged on each sale by the credit card issuer.

There may also be additional fees associated with your account depending on the provider you sign up with - such as monthly statement fees, minimum traffic fees, charge-back fees, and more. Always ask for a complete list of features and fees before signing up.