How Obtaining Internet Merchant Account? How does an Internet Merchant Account Cost? Important Things to consider while selecting an Online Merchant Account.
We are living in the technological era where most things require just a click to process on. E-commerce is surely one of the best gifts that this technological era has gifted us. We don’t need to go anywhere to get the things we are preferring to have.
But do you think the world of e-commerce is that simple as it seems to be? Surely not……….
Whenever we talk about the e-commerce business, we are just considering that class and ease that we would surely never had before.
An Internet Merchant Account is a vital component that works as a bridge between your bank account and your client’s money. For running an e-commerce business successfully, one needs to have an Internet Merchant Account for accepting payments online. The internet merchant account is the way to accept card payments via the web.
A Merchant bank usually offered IMA. Whether it is about acquiring funds from card schemes or through your Visa or MasterCard, it’s only your Merchant’s Bank’s job to avail yourself all of the facilities successfully.
What is Internet Merchant Account?
Internet Merchant Account is simply a kind of bank account that serves as a bridge between you and your bank and your client’s money. It is the way that helps you in acquiring your payments through different online services.
The payments made through credit cards or debit cards are not being directly forwarded to your bank account. These payments are usually being deposited to the internet merchant account which is then being forwarded to your business bank account.
Before leading further, we would like to clear one thing here that the payments made through credit cards are not as simple as they seem to be.
Direct payment only involves two parties i.e. you and your customers, but whenever we talk about digital transactions, the payments are being processed between the issuing bank and the acquiring bank. The issuing bank is responsible for granting credit and debit cards to the customers, whereas the acquiring banks requests and collect payments from the issuing bank and then transfer the same to the merchant’s bank.
Obtaining Internet Merchant Account
Applying and accessing a merchant account is not that simple as it seems to be. The competition level among the issuing merchant account is quite high. One needs to be quite attentive and careful while applying for and accessing the internet merchant account.
- We would prefer you here to make perfect use of some tips and tricks for lowering down the risk level. The main criteria’s majority of the vendors take into consideration while approving the merchant account application are:
- Consider the type of business you are having. Before starting up with your internet merchant account make sure that whether it is having a lower or higher risk of credit cards. Make sure the merchant bank you are going to associated with is free from frauds and are good at return policies.
- What are your future expectations with your business? The merchant bank you are going to choose should be well capable of handling long term investments very effectively. Make sure to choose a merchant bank that you can go for a longer run.
- Don’t forget to check out the business history of your preferable merchant bank.
- Make sure to check out the personal credit history of the business owner.
- It is likely to get different business reviews for the same merchant account from the same bank. You may be asked for higher transaction charges to compensate for the risk level. However, these charges can be further renegotiable once your business gets established.
- Make sure to check whether the applicant is having any previous merchant accounts.
How does an internet merchant account cost?
If you are willing to get an internet merchant account, you should be well aware of the different payment models being provided by the different merchant banks.
Flat-Rate Pricing
If you are looking forward to having on the most predictable and stable pricing model option, Flat-Rate Pricing is the best option to go on. As the name is describing it well, you just have to pay on the fixed price rates per each transaction here, and that further offers you to forecast the processing costs efficiently. PayPal and Square are one of the most recommended flat-rate pricing models available in the market.
Interchange-Plus Pricing
This pricing model includes a credit card processing rate that is often being set by the different card brands. This pricing model is also known as cost-plus pricing and is quite efficient for all the web merchants with higher sales volumes.
Membership Pricing
The best thing about this pricing model is that it has nothing to do with your sales volume. You just have to make the described monthly payments here. If you are running a bigger business and are currently having higher sales volume, Membership Pricing is the best pricing model we would prefer you to have.
Things to consider while selecting an online merchant account
Make sure to keep the following things in mind while selecting the preferable online merchant account:
- Check whether your merchant account does include a gateway or not.
- What kind of payment methods does your merchant bank is providing you?
- Does your merchant bank is providing your global payment support or not?
- Does it work well on recurring billing?
- Check out all about the developer tools included in your merchant account.
- Does your banking merchant is providing your 24 x 7 customer service or not?
Documentation Required for Internet Merchant Account
For getting access over your internet the documents you need to have on are:
- Certificate of Incorporation
- Certificate of Incumbency
- Local documentation
- Valid ID Cards
Conclusion
Working on an e-commerce business is never so easy. One needs to go through different basic ideas to get success over there. We have incorporated here a brief introduction about the internet merchant account and the different things associated with it. I hope, it will make your e-commerce journey a bit easier.