Does anyone know if you can have a merchant account that will allow a diffrent name based on teh charge.

I run 3 sites and I would like the actual site to appear on the credit card statement my current merchant account only allows one.

you are able to open up 3 different MID's and use three accounts but there is no way that one account can have several descriptors

which merchant account are you with that allows 3 MIDS? I own all 3 companies and just want it to charge website1 website2 website3 and state that on the card because as it is right now no one knows where the charge is coming from and its causes headaches,

I am currently working with Safecharge and there is no problem to open up several accounts under one ownership with different descriptors for each account

hy not just get three separare merchant accounts? Your accountant will probably appreciate it a lot better in the long run.

We just put a "charges will be billed as ..." on our checkout page.

Setting up 3 different merchant ID's (MID's) would be the ideal way to go for a lot of reasons.

First and foremost - you can't dynamically change the descriptor that appears on a transaction through any standard gateway and only certain business category codes have extended data fields that can be passed on the transaction record.... and those fields are defined by Visa and MasterCard.

Second - having three MID's will let you setup separate DBA names and phone #'s for customer service for all three brands. In addition, you'd get separate statements and supports and deposits to make it easy to know what is coming from which brand.

Third - a lot of merchant processors will allow this and some may even offer a discount on some fees for setting up multiple MID's at one time. It is always worth asking about this when speaking with various merchant processors.

Fourth - last but definitely not least... you'll have less chargeback exposure if you clearly distinquish your brands. While centralizing orders to a single DBA avoids the small incremental cost of additional MID's & gateways, it can often lead to chargeback issues in that a buyer won't remember the "correct" name 30-60 days later when they or their spouse sees their statement.

Hope that info is helpful!

I would consider getting three merchant accounts. I know my accountant really appreciated it when I did the exact same thing actually. It made reconciling the books a lot easier.

I even saved money in the long run with the amount of time he had to spend reconciling the books.