Hi, can someone please write a quick guide in getting started to completely anonymously accepting credit card payments on your website, for as cheap as possible?
I don't mind paying a few cents per transaction, but I would like a merchant account with free signup if possible, that just charges per transaction (instead of for setup and monthly).

Any suggestions would be more than appreciated.

I look forward to someone responding?

Tia.

paypal, authorize.net, google checkout, 2CO

these are free to signup and fees will be charge per trnsaction

any reason why it needs to be anonymous?

I highly recommend paypal for instant payment but 2checkout can take 2 to 6 weeks for payment and authorize.net is one day. Not sure about google checkout at the moment.

David, first of all, where are you located? Different rules for different countries, USA, Canada, UK, etc.

Secondly, forget about anonymous. In every case I know of, the buyer is entitled to know with whom he is dealing, otherwise you'll lose your shirt in chargebacks.

Finally, for those who suggested authorize.net as a cheap free alternative. #1, it's not free, both signup and monthly fees apply. Also, authorize.net is just a gateway, it is NOT a processsor..in other words, authorize.net works WITH a merchant account, all by itself it does nothing. And getting a merchant account to work with authorize.net will require both per item fees and discount rate percentagesk, probably no matter where your business is located.

As amspcs stated different rules for different countries. You are not going to find a anonymous service. Providers are going to want to verify identity in some way.

You might find a merchant account with free signup but unless you are running enough transactions you are going to have a minimum monthly fee.

Hey,

amspcs is right about the chargebacks, they will go to the sky if you try to accept payments anonymously. Even more though, getting people to send money to someone who's hiding their identity is not going to be easy.

Even with Paypal or 2checkout they require you put your name and customer service phone number along with the transaction receipt. If a customer tries and can't get you at that number they'll just dispute it.

If you want free signup go with PayPal, but anonymous is really out of the question. Also with a PayPal account, especially a new one, if they get lots of disputes from people who don't recognize the charge they will close the account out quickly.

PayPal, Google & 2CheckOut are highly recommended.

what kind of volume do you expect to have?

PayPal is an easy solution. However, it is not "anonymous". You must provide personal and/or business information to create/use your account.

"accepting credit card payments on your website, for as cheap as possible?"

I do get a chuckle from some of the questions, cc processing is the cost of doing business just as your electric, rent, bandwidth etc.

CC processing allows you to provide your customer a simple easy way to pay you for your product/services.

The banks/processors are going to get paid for putting into place the backend that makes the transaction a success.

Build the cost of accepting non cash payments into the price of your product/services.

I assume by anonymous you mean the buyer does not need to fill out any information. I'm not sure if any processors will allow this but it's not likely. Secondly, it's not at all advisable for you to do this. You will not know who your customers are (except for perhaps a transaction reference number of some sort) and you are opening yourself up to all sorts of fraud. Lastly, unlike swiped cards, a card not present transaction without any cardholder information will likely be very expensive due to the risks involved. You might want to reconsider your business model to see if there's some other solution other than anonymous transactions.

Dave, congratulations for a dead-on well stated post. This is EXACTLY what I've been telling small business people for years-it's nothing more than overhead and a cost of doing business, plain and simple. The technical term for building it into your overhead I believe is referred to as the 'overhead factor, a concept every business should know how to compute and admilnister, but few do.

Thanks for the support. It makes me wonder, business owners are scratching over 5 to 10 basis points, and are thinking they are doing something good.

There is more to your processing account than the basis points you are paying. Customer Service, how quickly do you get paid, is there a reserve, etc.