well I have finally decided to move away from 2checkout to a real merchant account.

But I am learning that many merchant accounts do not allow for yearly billing. Since yearly accounts are a big part of my business it is a necessity.

Can anyone recommend a merchant account provider that allows for yearly billing and uses authorize.net for the gateway.

You can do this with any merchant account I think.. This is one of the main advantages of having a merchant account over a 2co account you have as much flexability as you need.

Which merchant accounts don't allow for yearly billing?

If you have a merchant account, it's just that - a merchant account. Like your checking or savings account. There's generally not limits on how often you can write a check, or how often you can get money out of your account, or deposit money to your account.

You may be looking in the wrong places.

Also, with a merchant account, you'll still need some kind of software / server setup that will process credit cards online. WorldPay, Paysystems' IMA account, FuturePay, something like that. (There are other merchant gateways, of course; but those are names off of the top of my head.)

Actually there are quite a few merchant providers that disallow yearly billing. ECHO is one that comes to mind, Electronic Transfer - another. Some of these companies will let you extend your recurring billing as time goes on by virtue of having a proven record with them. Always contact your provider and let them know if you plan to do yearly billing. If you don't, you might end up having funds witheld due to abnormal activity and/or differences in volume compared to your original agreement.

Yeesh. Thanks for the notification, vipe. crosses ECHO off the list. I think I can see why they do this, but I would hate to switch later down the road and run up against this restriction.

Still...that disallowing of yearly billing - isn't that using Echo's recurring-billing function? It's still possible to invoice your clients using other software, and use the merchant account and gateway just to process the transaction, yes?

yes, vipe is correct there are many who do not allow yearly billing.

that is why I am hoping to find a recommendation for a good merchant provider that allows it.

I will be using authorize.net and clientexec or modernbill.

I just need a merchant account that will allow me to use this to charge for yearly hosting.

Although you cannot integrate into an online solution I highly recommend QuickBooks with their merchant services.

http://quickbooks.intuit.com/qbcom/jhtml/skins/services_ovw_mas.jhtml?priorityCode=0273400000

They allow recurring billing and it's integrated with a really full-featured accounting program. Plus it comes with a virtual-terminal so you can process cards anywhere.

By recommendation is just save your customer's information when they order hosting on your web site and then enter into Quickbooks.

Plus you can email your customer's invoices and they can go online to view the invoices, print them as a PDF, and pay their bill or you can automatically charge their card everymonth.

I think this is thus far the best solution!

Just my 2cents...

They allow recurring billing and it's integrated with a really full-featured accounting program

do you know if they allow yearly billing?

while I appreciate the QuickBooks suggestion, I have been very happy with the online scripts that integrate with cpanel. (nixt.org, soon clientexec )

but perhaps the QuickBooks merchant account could be used with authorize.net ?

It would be worth looking into if they allow yearly billing.

I think the problem is that most merchant providers will say no when you come right out and ask them. but they will actually allow it as long as you don't have any problems with charge backs.
I have been using 2checkout for a year and a half without a charge back.

Okay the QuickBooks merchant account is actually a VeriSign.net account however you cannot set it up to use PayFlowLink or Pro but you can use the same account and add a PayFlowLink or Pro to it which can integrate with your online system.

QuickBooks will let you charge whatever you want... as long as its legal of course... Well i would double check their terms.