Online Credit Card Payment Processing Set-up Cost

In order to set up an online credit card payment processing service, a business needs the following:

• An up-and-running website with a valid SSL certificate to encrypt sensitive account data.
• A shopping cart to enable customers to organize their shopping selection.
• An e-commerce payment gateway - the online equivalent of a physical credit card machine that facilitates the transmission of data between the website and the acquiring bank, quickly and safely.

The first two items should be supplied by your website designer. The payment gateway service should be offered and set up by the online credit card payment processing provider. The merchant should not be charged for any application or set up fees. There will most likely be a monthly gateway fee for the gateway that should not be in excess of $15 a month. There is another service fee that the card acceptor will be charged on a monthly basis and it goes by different names. Whatever it may be called, the merchant should not be paying more than $15 for it.

Also the merchant should not be asked to pay anything until the service is actually set up and usable. The biggest consideration, however, as far as fees are concerned, should be the credit card processing rates. The merchant should carefully examine the pricing proposals prior to making any decision on which service provider to choose. I would advise that the card acceptor contacts at least a dozen different processing providers and request a detailed pricing proposal from each one of them. The online credit card payment processing cost is made up of several components and the merchant needs to know precisely how much it will be paying for each one of them. Following below is a list of the most typical fees and charges associated with a web-based merchant account:

• Discount rate - the fee a merchant is charged by its processor for accepting card transactions.
• Authorization fee - a "per-transaction" fee.
• Application and set up fee.
• Monthly statement fee.
• Support fee.
• Payment gateway fee - unique to the online credit card payment processing accounts.

If the merchant sees any other fees in the pricing proposal, it will most likely be best to look elsewhere for a processor. Moreover, when evaluating a new pricing proposal, each prospective acquirer should provide a comparison table on how its fees stack up against the competition. Remember, you have plenty of choices, so don't rush into a decision, although that is precisely what the processor will want you to do.