With the recently launched payment arm of Google, known as “Google Checkout“, online merchants are finally getting much better options to process credit cards on their websites. Processing credit cards through the internet is such an important step for any online merchant, it is important to attach your business with a reliable and trustworthy credit card merchant. Credit card merchants will handle Visa & MasterCard, with AMEX and Discover running their own show. Then third party credit card merchants are more of a middle man between you and the actual card merchant. Now let me shed a little light that might help in getting your credit card processing setup right the first time.

3rd Party Merchant Companies – Pro’s & Con’s

• Very easy and quick to get setup and process for customers
• Large companies (Paypal * Google Checkout) make it easy to buy/sell at low prices.
• Monthly volumes can fluctuate, but are easier to go higher
• payments usually occur on weekly, bi-weekly or monthly schedules
• first glimpse of fear, processor will place hold on all funds and cease payouts
• usually require a reserve or rolling reserve, usually a percentage of each payout
• provides their own custom built software to easily function transactions
  
  

Direct Merchant – Credit Card Processing – Pro’s & Con’s

• Signup process can be lengthy and require quite a bit of upfront details that play into the approval/denial stage.
• Monthly volumes must start low or will fall into high risk, with financials of past history to qualify
• payments will occur on a daily basis less their fees
• any remote thought of fraud or chargeback’s and your account is frozen with no money being deposited but it will still allow processing to go through and charge you for the transactions. Getting account in good standing can take anywhere from 1 week to 3 months, along with money being returned. Usually, if your account is closed, cut your loses and find a new processor.
• rolling reserves and/or set reserve required for higher risk accounts.
• Gateway provides software to get instant approvals, but software from your site to talk to the gateway is your responsibility
• This method is a great way to go if you can find a reliable merchant and you sell a product or service that everyone loves 100% of the time.

Direct Bank Credit Card Processing

• Fairly lengthy application, with large monthly volumes more accepted. Especially if you are an existing bank customer.
• Batch payments occur daily
• Holdback and/or reserves typically are not necessary
• Risk department is proactive in working with client to resolve issues
• Provides gateway of your choice and software of your choice.
• This is the best way to go.

Oddly enough, it crossed my head to signup for Google Checkout just to see if they would process for our service, since they seem to have turned their backs on the text linking industry