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» 3rd Party Payment Gateways

There are 2 different types of payment gateways (also known as Merchant Accounts) that you can choose from. The first is free based payment gateways and the second is purchased payment gateways.

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» Two Types of Payment Gateways (Merchant Accounts)

1. Free Merchant Accounts
2. Paid Merchant Accounts

»What's the Difference Between the Two Different Types?

Free Merchant Accounts: This type of payment gateway requires no initial payment for you "The Merchant" to sign up and activate an account. All you need to do is fill out their registration form to create an account and then confirm your identity with a current credit card. Your credit card is not charged at anytime. Unless you make a purchase with that account and have insufficient funds within that online account to complete that purchase.

As all 3rd party payment gateways you are charged per transaction and in most case's also charge per item sold. The percentage you are charged for your transactions is usually higher with Free Merchant Accounts then as they would be with a Paid Account.

One disadvantage to a Free Merchant Account is that anyone who wishes to make a payment to you must also have registered account with that same 3rd party gateway. If they do not have a registered account, however, they can simply create one with that company just as you did. Sometimes this is an unfavourable choice to consumers as people most often just like to give their credit card information and have the transaction be instant.

Another disadvantage to a Free Merchant Account is that there is usually no live support and the support that is offered isn't as customer focused as a company that offers Paid Merchant Services.

One example of a Free 3rd Party Gateway would be Paypal.

Some companies will only accept this type of payment gateway such as EBay. You can only purchase items on eBay.com with a Paypal account.

To see a complete list of all the recommended 3rd Party Gateways we as a company have used or reviewed please, Click Here.

Paid Merchant Accounts: This type of payment gateway requires an initial setup fee in order to activate your account. Some companies even require a monthly fee on top of that which can become expensive if you are currently just starting out and aren't making any sales.

Companies that run this kind of payment gateway usually come with their own integrated shopping cart which in most cases is easy to use and offered with live tech support. Their lines of support are usually more customer focused and usually also offer a 1-800 number that you can call if you run into trouble.

One advantage to this type of service is that your rates are usually lower in terms of per items sold and the overall transaction fees.

Another advantage is that clients that you are making sales towards don't need to sign up with the 3rd party merchant account in order to make the payment required. They just simply add their credit card information and the 3rd party merchant account processes the payment instantly.

Paid Merchant Accounts usually run more in-depth fraud checks and will inform you via email on the status of the payment whether your client has passed all of their protocols or not.

Be sure to read all the fine print in both case's whether they it be for paid or free merchant accounts. As some companies will also charge you for charge backs created by your customer trying to make the purchase and other hidden fees associated with them.

One example of a Free 3rd Party Gateway would be 2Checkout.com.

To see a complete list of all the recommended 3rd Party Gateways we as a company have used or reviewed please, Click Here.

» A Final Note

We have reviewed and made a detailed comparison of all the major company's out there that you can use to setup a merchant account for your business.

Always be sure to read and review any company you are looking to do business with, whether it is online or else where. A good way to determine a companies support is to always call that company and ask questions. Be sure that are satisfied with their customer service because if you are going to use them as a resource you should know before hand what to expect.

Feel free to contact us by phone or via email if you have any questions?