What do you think about accepting creditcards yourself - fax the info from your SSL site to the creditcard company.

the rates depend on the credit card companys but at max. you pay 3,5 % (from the payment amount) on a per month payment to your account.

Pro and contra?


greets

ZYE

Well you would need a merchant account and most dont want the info faxed to them. I dont know of any that do anymore.

what do you mean with "most dont want the info faxed to them" ?

i just send the FAX to the CC Company and get the OK or NOT OK back. (30mins at max)

Well, some of the more obvious ones here would be:
Pros:
-It's cheaper than instabill (or others)
-It's easier than checks
-Customers like paying by card
-It makes your company seem more professional to prospective customers

Cons:
-around 3% + .25 per transaction fees from merchant account provider
-More of a hassle to fax forms to card company (compared to instabill) Although, you can usually get a web interface from your merchant account provider
-Chargebacks!
-Large setup cost (can be around $200 , but you can sometimes get this waived)
-Some security risk (You have to store credit card numbers somewhere, and someone could get ahold of them)


I personally think that a merchant account is 100% worth the expenses. Yeah, you have fraudulent orders come through every so often, but if you check your customers out well enough, you can usually catch these before you set them up.

I just love having all of my clients hosting fees deposited directly into my account on the 3rd of the month! (It makes life so easy!).


thanks,
mpope

if you are using an old company that still allows that great. Most dont even want phone auth's anymore much less fax.

What company are you going through? I'm just curious.

multipleimage

What company are you going through?

you mean credit card companies?
diners, amex, eurocard, visa

i do webhosting. ;)

i only pay 3.5% per payment at max. northing more (no setup or anything else)

yes - i have to secure the information very well cause i am liable in the cause of misuse

what i meant was what company is allowing you to fax in the transactions?

Originally posted by ZYE
multipleimage

What company are you going through?

you mean credit card companies?
diners, amex, eurocard, visa

i do webhosting. ;)

what bank are you going through that allows that i mean. you can just contact visa and say here is a charge.

any bank (i´m in europe though) but for accepting payments you just have to fill out their (credit card companies) application forms fill in the bank account and you are set.

Oh. if only it worked that way in the us.

on the application form you have to prove that you OWN a business - registered a business and have a business bank account though.

Originally posted by multipleimage
Oh. if only it worked that way in the us.


where are u located ??

i'm in the us. i am going to be changing who i have my merchant account with soon. i have been having some problems. here you have to go through a third party processor in order to accept them. atleast in arizona and california.

3rd party ?? why ??? what are the reasons to do so??

visa, mastercard, etc wont work with a company directly...

Originally posted by multipleimage
visa, mastercard, etc wont work with a company directly...

Hmmm..?? Thats strange - so instabill paypal and so on are the only ones to work with??

I just found on the mastercard site this.

http://www.mastercardintl.com/merchant/acqdir/cgi-bin/merchantReg.cgi

correct me if i'm wrong but that sounds like they do. ?

:cool:

merchantexpress can do it and they arnt instalbill. paypal

that link does say you need to use a 3rd party company

The first step in accepting MasterCard card programs is to contact an Acquirer or Member Service Provider (MSP).

MSP's are third party companies.

An acquirer is a financial institution that is a licensed MasterCard member, that has an agreement to provide the service of reimbursing merchants for their card transactions.
A Member Service Provider (MSP) is third party contracted by some acquirers to handle merchant services on behalf of the acquirer. In simpler terms, a MSP functions as a sales agent for an acquirer.

That explains it a little better.

ohh thats bad.