Setting up credit card processing on my website - Where to start?

patwa_2

Hello.

Now that I'm starting to get myself sorted out, I want to get the issue of accepting credit card payments sorted out. At the moment I'm going to go the eBay route full time and use Paypal, and eventually I want to take my business off eBay and onto my own site.

I've been doing some reading, and whereas most people seem to have got set up with a merchant account and payment gateway, I had some trouble finding information about the differences in services and any clear recommendations.

Also, re: a merchant account, how difficult is that to obtain? Being a student with low income and just starting out in business, plus being unlikely to have large numbers of transactions immediately, would that prevent me from opening a merchant account?

Also, which gateways, and what are the things to look out for or be vary of? Finally, whereas I know that you get what you pay for, I don't want to pay excessively for this service and leave myself in the red right at the start. Worldpay is definitely an out for that.

Thanks.

colin79666

You might like to try using PayPal. It's fees are higher than some but it does provide a lot of tools to make integrating it into your site a breeze.

You can take website payment with a premier PayPal account (you probably have one of these already for ebay).

Login to Paypal and click Merchant Tools - you should find the pages there will answer many of your questions.

richt71

patwa wrote:

Hello.

Now that I'm starting to get myself sorted out, I want to get the issue of accepting credit card payments sorted out. At the moment I'm going to go the eBay route full time and use Paypal, and eventually I want to take my business off eBay and onto my own site.

I've been doing some reading, and whereas most people seem to have got set up with a merchant account and payment gateway, I had some trouble finding information about the differences in services and any clear recommendations.

Also, re: a merchant account, how difficult is that to obtain? Being a student with low income and just starting out in business, plus being unlikely to have large numbers of transactions immediately, would that prevent me from opening a merchant account?

Also, which gateways, and what are the things to look out for or be vary of? Finally, whereas I know that you get what you pay for, I don't want to pay excessively for this service and leave myself in the red right at the start. Worldpay is definitely an out for that.

Thanks.

Pm me....I may be able to help!