i am using verisign just as an example.

Ok i think i finally understand how accepting credit cards works.
Please correct me if i am wrong.!


Customer Comes to my site.
Goes to my Order page.

He goes to a page with SSL Certificate (#1)
on it.
When he presses Submit, VeriSign(#2) takes over.
They take the Info passed, and make sure its a valid credit card.

If everything is approved, verisign keep their transaction fee,
and transfer the money into a merchant Account (#3).

The Merchant Account should be under my name.
And it has to be only from a select list of banks.

When the money is put into my Merchant Account,
i have to transfer it into my own Personal Business Account(#4)

Is that all Correct?

Steps
1. SSL Order Page
2. Verisign Approves or Rejects Transaction
3. Verisign Puts my money in a merchant Account.
4. I transfer the money from my Merchatn Account to my Bank Account.

Sound Good?

This all seems insanely expensive.

One haves to buy an SSL.
One needs to signup to Verisign, which costs about 400$US Already.
One needs to signup to a Merchant Account.

How much does it cost to signup for a Merchant Account?
Which banks do you usually have to go through?

This has all been bugging me for a while.
I hear people talking about this, and cant follow the conversation.

Thanks
Trevor

If you are looking for an (initially) less expensive way to accept credit cards you could also use a service like Revecom (or others) which don't require a full merchant account but take a higher percentage. You do not even need to buy a SSL certificate as the user is directed to their homepage for payment.

With my merchant account I use Authorize.net, they even provide their own SSL.

A SSL has nothing to do with the credit card being declined or accepted.

Authorize.net has a good diagram to show how this how this whole thing works.

http://authorize.net/solutions/diagram.php

id recommend starting out with a 3party such as revecom.
unles you have alot of money to front

Originally posted by Mack
id recommend starting out with a 3party such as revecom.
unles you have alot of money to front

I wouldn't if you have the revenue. I got into my merchant account for only $69.95.

That's not that much. I process $950.00 per month and
at 2.3% its $21.85 + $40 in fees $61.85 That is a average
of 6.5% in fees. And no hold backs! Make interest on your own hold backs.

thanks for the advice prevo!

Originally posted by RunOfTheMill
thanks for the advice prevo!

No problem, glad to be of help.

I myself have been looking at 2checkout.com...I am not sure if it's the way to go so some input would be appreciated.

Basically I am looking for a company that can bill my clients each month for me, so I don't need to worry about it to much.

Also, a question for you reseller pro's. When someone sends me all their creditcard info and stuff, do I buy their account off my reseller with my company creditcard and then charge my client myself....?

And what if my client has a tech support question?


Thanks a million guys,

Mekhu