Subscribe to usHow to Increase Small Business Sales by Accepting Credit Card Payments
Published Date: 2007-03-24 15:50:24 WorkOnInternet.com


Read More on Selling on the WebIf your business is home-based or has been in operation for less than two years, then you are likely to face objections or high costs from the average local bank in attempting to acquire merchant status.Consider going through an Independent Sales Organization.

These are the field representatives from out-of-town banks who help small and home based businesses find banks willing to grant them merchant status. The ISO may be able to help you simply because it represents dozens of banks with their own specialties and criteria. The ISO representative can match your needs with the needs of the banks that he or she represents, without requiring you to go through the application process with all of them.Once you have obtained merchant status, and if you are with a high quality provider you can accept all major credit cards including Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover Card.Before you sign on with any bank, consider the costs carefully and if you do not anticipate many credit-card sales, it might not be worthwhile for you to pay the setup and monthly fees. If you are not sure the costs will benefit your business in the long run being approved for your own merchant account may not be the right thing for you.

Consider the following:

When you accept credit cards, your sales have the potential to increase as much as 400% instantly.Over 88% of all internet sales are paid for by credit card merchant account.If you want to compete on the internet today, you must accept credit cards and start credit card processing.In order to accept credit cards on the Internet, an online merchant or business needs to have an Internet Merchant Account, a credit card processing system (shopping cart software or a complete ecommerce solution), and a secure payment gateway (using API application programming interface) to connect to banking networks for authorization of credit card transactions.

The Internet merchant account is not at all like a bank account it is more like a line of credit that enables the credit card networks to route funds to you quickly (within a couple of days). When your customers order online from your web site, the credit card information provided will be used to process the transaction. When the approval is obtained you are notified, through email confirmation and it will be posted to your online Transaction Manager. Then, upon settlement, merchant bank is informed and funds will be transferred to your business bank account.Accepting credit cards may not be for every business, but if yours is the kind of business where customers are likely to want the convenience, you are only cheating yourself if you do not give them what they want, remember that your competition definitely will.

So, as you can see you have a number of ways to get a merchant status. Remember, the name of the game is convenience for your customers. If you do not offer it, they will go to someone who does.

Founded in 1988, FDIS is an established leader in the transaction processing industry. FDIS has one of the highest merchant approval rates in the industry. Whether opening a new business or expanding an established one, we provide flexible and reliable products and services that enable merchants across the United States to accept nearly all types of electronic payments.

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