I have several websites and currently use a 3PP for each.
I am now looking to setup a merchant account and a gateway.
I have built a custom billing/cart system.
Questions are...
1. Do I need to setup a separate merch acct/gateway
for each site or can I just use the same one for all?

2. If you have one merch acct/gateway, what to customers see on
their credit card statement? Is there a way to have one merch. acct/gateway
and have customers from different sites know that their purchase
came from a specific site?

Thanks for any help or suggestions.

You can have one merchant account for multiple websites. But you need to make sure that your client knows who they are buying from. This will prevent chargebacks. Also, list your customer service number on the consumer CC statement just in case in.

Usually when websites do this, they have it in the footer as well. And you definitely want to put it on the invoice (Visa regs).

The MID will be issued only to one company, XYZ. If they buy from TUV, XYZ will still show up on the statement. If you are processing more than $10,000 on each site, definitely consider a merchant account for each one.

Thanks coreybryant,
Yes definitely doing a lot more than $10K per site, which is why I want a merch. acct/gateway.
But with different sites I didn't want the hassle of setting up multiple account and paying multiple fees for different sites.
So the only problem I see that you mention is that a customer can be confused as to where the charge originated from.
I guess though, that other than what shows up on their CC statement, my custome system can provide receipts specifically stating which site they made their purchase from.

Is there any reason why you say I should get a merch acct for each site if the billing exceeds $10K for each site? Is it simply to assure that people's CC statements can clearly show the site where the purchase was originated?
Thanks again for your assistence.

If you are doing 100 transactions a month at about $100, you are looking at about $285 that is going to the processing. If you multiply that by three, you get $855.

Now for 300 transactions (3 websites) at $100, that is about $800.

You are saving $55, but you have to think is it worth it. Plus your accountant might like to see from where the money is coming from. Having the three different merchant accounts would help to see where the money is coming from and going.

(*the numbers above are based on U.S. prices)

Some places will offer dynamic billing. I've seen some sites use this, basically instead of

AMUSIVE.COM 877-my-number

Showing up on the statement it's something simple followed by a * and some dynamically set text, eg:

AMUSIVE.COM * SiteSurvival

I think you could still include the phone number as well.

I've seen this done on my card but I have yet to find a merchant provider that would do the service (I use one account for about 8 different sites, so it would be very benificial to me personally).

What I do though is basically what Corey suggests: plaster my toll free number all over the place, and have a (hopefully!) noticable link to "Why Did You Bill My Credit Card" on the domain that shows up on statements.

Plus one more thing - I would make sure that the products you are selling are somewhat similar. If one site is a membership site - you definitely want a separate merchant account for that since that is high risk and chargebacks are more likely to happen there

why dont you ask the merchant providers they will tell your fast and give you a solution.

Well the "problem" with asking them - they get more money for the merchant accounts, so three is better than one. There are a lot out there that will tell you that you have to have three. It just all depends on the services / products that is being offered