by Jeremy Netlon
Generally there are following types of Merchant Accounts:
By business type:
- Retail (card present or swiped). These merchant accounts offer the lowest transaction fees and have the most restrictive rules associated with them. Retail merchant credit card sales are processed through a physical credit card terminal and require that a very high percentage (75% or more) of credit card sales be conducted with the card present.
- MOTO (Mail Oder - Telephone Order). These merchant accounts are used when credit cards cannot be physically processed. MOTO or Mail Order - Telephone Order merchant account owner usually process credit card payment by entering the credit card information directly into a terminal that contains a keypad (PIN pad) or by using a personal computer with a merchant software installed on it, or a virtual terminal provided through the web browser on a payment service provider's web site.
- Internet. These merchant accounts are very similar in cost and rules of usage to the MOTO merchant accounts. Internet merchant accounts process payments through the internet only using a virtual terminal, or a processing gateways with a shopping cart applications, or custom designed HTML forms.
By location:
- Located by Country (US, Canadian, EU, UK merchant accounts). Merchant account providers which typically do their businesses within their country geographical borders only.
- Offshore. A merchant account provider that works offshore, process through a non-domestic processing bank, outside your country geographical borders.
- International. This type of merchant account providers enables you to sell in different currencies and provides their services worldwide. Furthermore international merchant accounts are as closely tied in with all the major credit card companies as a single currency merchant account.
By legal form:
- Banks. Typically banks provide credit card processing services for shops, supermarkets, stores, etc. by establishing payments processing network to transfer transactions information from terminals, cash registers to bank. However most banks do not process credit card transactions themselves and outsource credit card processing to a third party processor.
- Third Party. Third party processors take care of different aspects of the transaction process such as billing, authorization, reporting, and settlement. They work as associates or affiliates of other financial institutions.
- Independent Sales Organization (I.S.O). An ISO essentially is a registered credit card merchant broker. ISO set up and service credit card merchants, but do not do the actual processing. In most cases ISOs represent at least two credit card processors or banks that handle the credit card transactions although some may have more.
- Financial Service Provider. A specificall type of merchant account provider like American Express or Discover which do not establish a merchant account with you through an intermediary but give you an option of applying directly to them.
- Association. A small business or trade association providing merchant processing at discount prices.
By risk level:
- Low Risk. A merchant account service providers providing their services for low risk merchants: shoe store, restaurant, book store, gas station, grocery store, etc.
- Medium Risk. A merchant account service providers providing their services for medium risk merchants: auto rental, detective services, security services, seminars, educational, computer stores, etc.
- High Risk. A merchant account service providers providing their services for high risk merchants: pharmacy, adult related services and products, gambling, airline travel, etc.
| Hits: 639 | Rank: 0.00 | |
| Comments (0) / Comment / Publish |
