Accepting Credit Cards Online: Easy, Cheap and Necessary

Your online business needs to accept credit cards. That’s true whether your business is the next ebay or you’re just selling your old collectibles on ebay. You’re simply holding your business back if you don’t accept the payment method of choice of the internet. Sadly, many people think they won’t qualify for a new merchant account to accept credit cards, or that it will be too expensive or complicated. That might have been true a few years ago, but not anymore.

Why Anyone Can Accept Credit Cards

* Low cost. In the US, the cost of accepting credit cards is around $10-$20/month in flat fees, plus a small percentage of your sales, called a discount rate. For an offline business, the discount rate is as low as 1.69% (lower for debit cards). For an online business, discount rates are as low as 2.19%. Yes, online businesses are considered riskier and therefore are charged more. Still, 2.19% is much less than even many offline businesses were paying just five years ago. Non-US business will likely pay significantly more, but likely not more than a few hundred dollars a month and maybe a 6% discount rate. That's still a small price to pay to build a thriving online business.* No upfront fees. There are now merchant account providers that charge nothing upfrontâ€"no application fee, no deposit. (For US businesses only.)* No minimum number of sales. If you sell nothing in a given month, that's fine. Your account won't be cancelled so long as you pay a small minimum fee in lieu of transactions (usually around $25-$35/month).* Low credit threshold. Believe it or not, qualifying for a merchant account to accept credit card payments is easier than qualifying for a credit card account. Even people who have a bankruptcy on their credit report may qualify for a merchant account (though they'll be in a more expensive higher-risk category). The credit check only takes a few minutes. Just give the representative your Social Security number or EIN and you're done. For non-US businesses, the credit check might be a little more in-depth, but not impossibly so.

Why You Need to Accept Credit Cards

1. Prestige. Admit it: you can't be a real business if you don't take credit cards. At least, that's how the average consumer or entrepreneur sees it.
2. Trust. Accepting credit cards means your name, address, and social security numbers are on file somewhere with a bank, so you're a lot less likely to be a crook. It also means that your customers can dispute the transaction if you don't put out the goods.
3. Sales. Online customers make the vast majority of their purchases with a credit card. They are not going to change their ways for you.
4. Western Union isn't enough. Bank wires offer very little consumer protection, so no one trusts them for paying online. Besides, most people have never used it before, and again, they're not going to change their ways for you.
5. PayPal isn't enough. Some people simply don't trust it. There are entire websites devoted to horror stories with PayPal. Other prospective customers worry about having to set up a PayPal account to make payment. Even a slight doubt is enough to send many visitors to the "back" button. Don't leave room for doubt.