What questions should I ask when calling about a merchant account?

Just get a couple of free quotes and also check with your bank. Basically monthly fees, setup charge, and what is the transaction fee cost per transaction. The basics. I just set mine up. Go to one of my websites and just get a free quote from the company where I got mine account set up. They are big and national. Just go to the logo on the bottom of this page of my site. As you go through my website you can see the authorized security logos displayed. Good luck!!

There are many things you need to know when selecting a payment processing provider. The most important issue is processing costs – you certainly don’t want to be overcharged. The costs are comprised of various fees and charges and I have given you a breakdown below.

1. Discount rate – the amount a merchant is charged by his acquirer for processing the merchant’s transactions. It consists of a percentage fee (e.g. 2.19%) and a fixed, per transaction, fee (e.g. $0.25). You should not agree to anything higher than 2.19% + $0.25.

2. Authorization fee – another “per-transaction” fee. You should not pay more than $0.12.

3. Application and set up fee – one-time fees to apply for and set up your account. You should NOT pay ANY set up or application fees!

4. Monthly maintenance fee – as the name suggests, it is charged monthly to keep your account on file. You should not be paying more than $10.

5. Support fee – another monthly charged for customer service. You should NOT pay ANY such fees.

6. Virtual terminal fee – a virtual terminal is the application that you will open in your browser and enter the payment information as you are taking it over the phone or getting it from a form you got in the mail. It should be provided for free.

7. Gateway fee – a gateway is the service that connects your website with your processing bank and transmits transaction information between them. You will only need it if you want to let customers pay you over the web and it should not cost you more than $15 per month.

As you can see, there are many rates to consider and this is just the beginning. Rates are only as good as your ability to process transactions in a way that is compliant with Visa and MasterCard regulations. If they are not, transactions are downgraded to “non-qualified” and processed at a substantially higher rate (on average about a full 1% higher). It is your merchant account provider’s responsibility to help you get a grasp of these regulations and ensure compliance.

Good luck!

Actually, you can avoid the set up charges. Here is the gateway I use with my site: