Hi. I am currently starting a web hostging company and I have already setup everything. I bought Plesk, Modern Bill and installed PerlDesk.

My server is Dual p3 800 with 512mb of ram and 18gb SCSI hard drives. (Planning on upgrading hard drive space as needed).

The only problem I have at the moment is billing. I do not have a merchant account and I will start using PayPal. The problem is that for PayPal people have to signup to PayPal to be able to pay. I would like some information or suggestions on where to get a merchant account, costs, etc. Any help would be greatly appreciated since pretty soon my web site will be done and I need to launch it to start making some profit :) All I want is to be able to charge my clients without PayPal and also that the gateway functions with ModernBill.

I have a Savings account in my bank at the moment and someone told me to get a business account, the problem is my business is not incorporated or anything so how could I do this also? If you could please help me it would be great. Thanks in advance!

What bank do you use? Do you have a Tax ID number for your business?

I am in Puerto Rico. So I use "Banco Popular of Puerto Rico" (http://www.bancopopular.com).

No, I do not have a Tax ID. I think to have a Tax ID you need to have your company incorporated unless you use your social security number.

:(

I would try Authorize.net for the system and see what your bank can do for you. We use Wells Fargo/Authorize.net...they had some kind of deal worked out. Check with your bank, I would go in and talk to them, they should be able to help you out. Let me know if that helps or if you have any questions.

I don't know how they do things in Puerto Rico, but you should be able to file a DBA (Doing Business As) or sometimes called a Fictitious Business name Statement with your county courthouse.

Then you can take this form to the bank and open a business banking account.

By the way you don't need a tax ID to open a Merchant Account. You can use your SSN.

Originally posted by jrm
By the way you don't need a tax ID to open a Merchant Account. You can use your SSN.


Didn't know that :(

Hi,

Why not consider 3rd party processing gateways like

2checkout.com
revecom.com
hostcharge.com

?

Joe

Because I dont like them holding 10% of my money each month. I am going to call my bank today and see how they can help me out.

Just wanted to add that I, too, got a business account and merchant account without a tax ID. I filed for a D/B/A and just used my social security number for the accounts. Don't know if it's different in other states (I'm in Massachusetts) or Puerto Rico, but it's certainly worth checking out. :D

EDIT: Also ModernBill can be used with ECHO, so check them out as a merchant possibility (http://www.echo-inc.com/).

Where should I go to apply for a DBA? I really don't even know what a DBA is. =/

Originally posted by psalicrup
Where should I go to apply for a DBA? I really don't even know what a DBA is. =/

Just down the street :) Town hall or City Hall.. I believe it cost $15.00 (atleast here in mass, thats about the only thing you can get for 15.00)

Good luck....

For a long time I did not have the opening balance required to open a business account with my bank (Not to mention I couldn't find my DBA paperwork) so I opened a personal account and had my merchant company (authorize.net) use that account.


As for where to get a merchant account, the cheapest I found was charge.com who is one of the resellers of authorize.net.


I hope this helps.

I recommend that you check out this place, http://www.merchantanywhere.com/index.htm ou don't have to have abusiness banking account as you do with our e-commerce sites. And its a reasonable flat monthly rate.

Just to clarify, since no-one else mentioned this, D/B/A stands for Doing Business As. Another word for it is a Fictuitous Name (I probably mauled the spelling though).

It doesn't mean much; it just allows you to use another "name," so to speak. If my name is Lurleene Smith but want to do business under the name Lurleene's Excellent Web Hosting, this will allow me to do so. Then I can get a checking account using the name Lurleene's Excellent Web Hosting, and a merchant account.

Firstly, if I was you I would really consider incorporating your business. Assuming you are not engaged in illegal activities incorporation preserves your personal assets from angry customers if things do not go as planned. Secondly you don't need to be incorporated to open another account at your bank and use it just for your business. As far as Merchant account goes some of the control panels have certain merchant gateways integrated. So I would check with the control panel vendor. Your cost would be an inital set up cost of couple hundred dollars and percentage off of each transaction you push through this particular merchant gateway.

http://www.2checkout.com
Everyones favorite

Last time I checked, you users do not need to signup to pay through PayPal.. They come to a screen where they can choose to signin, signup or continue as is..

We are not a illegal company, we have had our EIN since 1998, we are fully licensed in the State of PA. The banking institution where my wife does her banking.

Charges for DBA's, so we just use our own personal accounts. Maybe later when the online side off our business gets larger we will get another business account.

But for now we are happy with the services we are using and want to let others know that the there is such a service there available to them.

Thanks everybody for your help :) I went to the bank today and opened a DBA Business Account. Now I'm just waiting for the charge.com contract to arrive so I can start billing credit cards :)

Thanks!!! :D

Originally posted by psalicrup
No, I do not have a Tax ID. I think to have a Tax ID you need to have your company incorporated unless you use your social security number.


Actually, you can apply to the IRS for an EIN (Tax ID) regardless of the business form. Sole proprietorship, for example. It's probably wise to avoid attaching your personal SSN to too many things; it just increases the chances of identity theft.

Kevin