Gain it!
It depends on your current business budget, of course, but you don’t have to sink a lot of money into credit card processing equipment. All you need do is get a merchant account services account, buy or lease a credit card processing unit, and you are good to go. Plug it in or take a wireless unit with you on the road to make credit payments easy, fast, and secure.
Let's face it, many businesses cringe when they think of dealing with banks when they are looking to set up merchant credit card accounts. The truth is that in order to be in business in this day and age as a merchant, you must be prepared to accept and process credit cards. Most especially if you do business over the Internet. If you are not prepared to offer a full array of credit card acceptance options, I'm afraid you will soon be out of business. The downside to accepting credit cards is that the merchant is at risk for not only the amount that has been charged, but a charge back fee as well. The banks will take the disputed charge along with a chargeback fee directly from the merchants account and if the merchant does not have sufficient funds that have already cleared from paying their own bills, they will be hit with yet another charge which is known as an overdraft charge. It can become a vicious cycle. There are now more than a few banks that recognize that these charge backs are not always the fault of the merchant, and that indeed, most merchants are honest with their credit card dealings. I regret having to say that there is so much credit card fraud out there today, and because the merchant is always liable, you must take active steps to protect yourself and your business. First of all, you must be careful to verify to the very best of your ability that the name, address and cvv number verification are all in good order. The business owner, or merchant, must be careful to verify the IP address of each and every transaction to make sure that it is within the approximate location of the cardholder. A red flag should go up if a person who lives in Des Moines, Iowa is suddenly making a charge in Boca Raton, Florida. This is your livelihood so the exercise of due diligence and caution are always of paramount importance. Do not fall into the habit of becoming apathetic because as quickly as money is credited to your merchant account it can be taken away due to the charge backs that we discussed earlier. Now there are organizations who are working to try to change the banking and processing rules and regulations so that businesses that are both small and large will have some more protection against credit card fraud.
How much can you expect to pay? The cost of a merchant account can vary enormously mainly based on the perceived risk associated with the business applying for the facility and the area of business they are involved in. Typically you can expect start up costs to be in the $190 - $300 range with processing fees on individual transactions from around 2% variable depending on sales volume. The more business you're going to be putting through your merchant account, the more you'll be in a position to negotiate with your merchant account provider.