Types of Merchant Accounts
A merchant account is a type of bank account that permits businesses to recognize payments by debit or credit cards. A merchant account also serves as an agreement between a dealer, a merchant bank and payment processor for the settlement of credit card and/or debit card transactions.
There are three main types of merchant accounts that you might be able to choose from.
Retail merchant accounts – This type of account generally have the lowest transaction fees, but often have preventive rules. With this type of account, this requires that a very high percentage of credit card sales must be performed with the card present and that the card must be swiped through a physical credit card terminal. Businesses such as restaurants, grocery stores, and small hotels are usually linked with retail accounts. This type of account would be best for merchants who are not planning on handling business through the mail or online at any point.
MOTO merchant accounts – Mail Order – Telephone Order accounts has a tendency of charging a higher transaction fee and are used when credit cards cannot be physically swiped. Merchants usually process the payments of the credit card by entering the information of the directly into a terminal installed on a computer, or through the use of a Web browser to process transactions on a web site of the payment service provider.
Internet accounts – Internet merchant accounts are parallel to MOTO accounts, but are only used for internet transactions. A virtual terminal or payment service gateway is used by merchants who have internet accounts to process credit card payments. These payment service gateways are included with a good number of business web hosting packages, and have custom-designed HTML forms.
If you are in UK, you might have limited choices as to the variety of accounts open to you. Normally this type of accounts for UK and other European companies have very high rates. That is why it is important to choose the right type of account and payment processor for the type of business you will be handling. Although there is a great deal of service providers available these days, but you should always read their terms of service very carefully, for most of them charge excessive fees and have stringent rules regarding transactions. Do not hesitate to ask questions, it is important that you understand their terms and policies. Shop around and research different companies of accounts service providers. Consult people you know and ask if they could recommend this type of account’s service provider with good rates. Before signing anything or agreeing to anything make sure that you do understand everything there is to know about their terms and policies.
