Merchant accounts guidance needed

[kns]

And has anyone dealt with or heard of Sage Payment solutions for merchant accounts. Suggestions? Thanks.

[Corey Bryant]

As far as accepting payments worldwide, there is not really a difference as far as consumers are concerned. It matters where the merchant is. Some processors will charge a non-qualified rate for some transactions depending on the country and issuing bank (never really figured out exactly how it works, saw a transaction from a consumer in Russia and the transaction was qualified). The non-qual rate is usually higher and is charged because Address Verification Service (AVS) cannot be complete on the transaction. This is the basic / start of vetting the transaction.

If you think you are going to have a lot of transactions from users not in the United States, you might look into VBV / MSC. This also helps you into accepting Maestro card brands as well. First Data also has an option that they will add PayPal / Google Checkout as well to your account if requested.

As far as merchant accounts, it used to be that you mainly got them from the bank. Heck, I remember depositing the signed copies from the knuckle-busters long ago. Now, a lot of banks outsource this to other companies (like First Data). The other big players is Chase / Paymentech and Nova / Elavon.

Another company is CDGCommerce - they are a merchant account provider. They will also work with you while you work with them. Communication is the key in the transactions. If you get a large transaction that is above what you thought you might get, contact the provider to let them know. They might want to vet the transaction as well. Remember it is their (merchant account provider) money before it is yours and they want to protect themselves just as much.

[phanio]

Just one comment as Corey really outlined the ins and outs. My expeience is that it is better have your merchant processor and your bank be one in the same. I say this from a cash flow perspective. Usually, if they are the same, you will receive your funds a day or two faster then through a third party.

Now having said that, I haven't heard of any problems like account suspension. If this is a real problem, might contact your bank and read their fine print.