Guest post Provided by Charge.com Payment Solutions, Inc. Charge.com is a company that provides low cost and flexible options for online merchant accounts. Visit the Charge.com website for more information.
Online merchant accounts enable credit card processing for purchases made in online stores. There are a variety of factors that will help small businesses determine what makes a good merchant account service.
The choices for picking an on the internet payment processing firm for mobile credit card processing are various and hard to evaluate. You know that you want the very best solutions and alternatives that you can find, however exactly how do you verify which firm is the best of the best? There are a variety of things to look out for which are indicative of a great credit card processing company.
1. Fly-by-nights: There are hundreds of these shady start-ups that will do more harm than good. It’s not to say that a business that is first starting out is a bad business (albeit still probably very inexperienced), it just means that most companies that have just started this past year will not make it very far. Why put your trust in a company that hasn’t proved its worth, especially when it comes to handling money? Any business that has lasted 5 years or more will be a trustworthy resource.
2. Contract Cost: Some places require contracts, and some places don’t. Early termination fees in contracts are something to avoid for online merchant accounts. Termination costs could set you back anywhere from $300 to $1,000. The easiest way to avoid all of this is to choose the “no contract” option, or an easily forfeitable agreement. Ask the question of how much you will be charged on a monthly basis. Your first instinct may be to choose merchant accounts with the most affordable price, but remember that cheaper isn’t always necessarily better. You still want high quality customer service with available representatives.
3. 24/7 Customer Support: Ensure that your clients that use their credit cards have a rapid and receptive consumer support team, preferably one that can be accessed 24/7 for the convenience of the customer. It might be a good idea to study online reviews of the company that you are considering to use. Other people have probably used this company before, and they will have an opinion on exactly how they feel their issues were handled.
4. Top Security: Being PCI compliant is a must for the protection of yourself and for your customers. There should be no exceptions. The level of security used by a credit card processing company must be the equivalent of an online banking unit. Your desire do conduct your business with the highest security feasible will keep a good reputation with your customers, especially if you utilize credit card handling with internet merchant accounts.