Hi,

try to open a new merchant account soon, but here are some questions I have.
1. do i have to have a company to open an account?
2. do i need to open a business bank account, or can i use my personal checking account for that?

thanks a lot for your reply.

Hi becoder and welcome to the board.

1. do i have to have a company to open an account?

There are many merchant account providers that don't requirer that.

2. do i need to open a business bank account, or can i use my personal checking account for that?

Most merchant provider can use the bank account your hvae, regardless if it is a business account or a personal checking account.

Im not sure where you are located, and therefor you should ask MAP for it, I know in the US the requirements can be different.

hi, trinitron,

thanks a lot for the reply. yes. i am in the US.
any good website to reccommend?

It is definitely possible to obtain a U.S. merchant account as an individual - you would be considered a "sole proprietor" in such an instance.

And regarding the bank account - if you have a personal bank account that is fine for most processors. As long as it can accept electronic debits & credits (which virtually all do) then you should be fine.

 Most merchant provider can use the bank account your hvae, regardless if it is a business account or a personal checking account We orginally signed up with Charge.com - as our legally incorporated business. However, they insisted that the bank account proof we sent them should be in the Business name, not a personal account. Even after explaining that we did not have a Business checking account, that ALL our business is done through a personal account. In order to have a Business account with Charge.com - you have to have a Business account.We switched to another company who is much easier to deal with.

Just my 2 cents.

You can have either, as they have stated above. Since charge.com is a reseller of CSI, I can also state that you can have a personal / business checking account with CSI. Sometimes dealing with a larger reseller (like charge.com) - there might be some miscommunication at times.

Most merchant services I looked into require you to have a business license and a business banking account. They will require a copy of your business license and a voided check. Do research though, ask questions, read their policies VERY carefully.

Very true - the ones we've set up did require our Corp. paperwork faxed to them, as well as the banking info faxed. We looked at many different merchant programs before we found the one that works for us. :)

Yes you will most likely need to be some kind of business or trading as something, even if its a sole proprietor. Seriously doubt they'll go handing them out to individuals, if you know of one let me know :) would be very happy to be wrong :D

Not exactly sure what you mean "handing them out to individuals". Are you wanting a merchant account that has your name as billed to?

Different merchant services providers have different requirements.

There is no Visa or MasterCard Card Association requirement to have a business checking account in the name of the business if you are a sole proprietor - some processors may require this as each processor gets to set the own policies for their underwriting.

At minimum, you should expect and be willing to supply any merchant services provider with at least:

1 - Proof of a bank account that either you own directly or which is owned by your business

2 - Proof of your identity - to ensure compliance with the Patriot Act and limit the possibility of identity theft & fraud

3 - Proof of your product/service - i.e. via a working Web site or failing that, marketing materials, business license or some other kind of indication of what it is that you are wanting to sell

Thanks for posting CDGCommerce! It's YOUR company we went through - and are VERY happy :) (except we didnt' get the signup bonus when we signed up.... no promotion then).

hmmm, I see "Resellers Welcome" in your link... brb, have to check on that :)

Its always a good idea to setup a separate account for business so that its easy to track business income & expenses for tax purposes. The merchant account providers dont really care wether its a business or personal checking account as long as you can ACH money in an out of it. The only thing they do care about is that the name on the bank account is either the name of the business' DBA. If you operate as a sole proprietorship then the name on the bank account can be your personal name.

-MM

Thanks for the very nice words, wehost4u, glad you like the service. :)