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Merchant Services
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There are two main ways to collect credit card payments online.
You can get a merchant account yourself, or you can do a third party merchant account.
There are many different merchant service providers available.
We have chosen two who we feel are the best in price and service.
What's the difference between a third party merchant account and your own merchant account?
Own Merchant Account
Having your own merchant account means you get to bill credit cards yourself. This is a lot of responsibility!
You would be storing your client's credit card numbers in your very own database, and would have the power to bill them any time you want for any amount.
Because you have so much power this type of an account
is a little harder to get started with. We recommend CDG Commerce as far as getting your own merchant account goes
and here is why....
Our first merchant provider we signed up with lured us in with amazing rates,
and customer service. After just a few months of being with them they jacked our rates up,
put a 10% reserve on our account without telling
us, and lied about the category our transactions fell into. They claimed over
half our transactions were non qualified which meant close to a 5% fee per sale.
We started doing research for a better merchant provider, and it turned out the
industry was filled with companies pulling the same scams. That's when we found
CDG and haven't had a SINGLE problem with them. They haven't raised our fees at
all , we don't have a reserve stealing money from us, and less than 10% of our
transactions fall into the non qualified catgatory rate which is a 4.15% fee per
transaction. We have worked out a deal with CDG Commerce so that you receive the
same exact discount we as a large company receive. If you wish to signup and get
started with our deal we have with them please fill out the following
application form For more info
on rates, advantages and disadvantages keep reading...
Third party merchant account
Paypal is what you can call third party merchant accounts. They store the credit card numbers
that charge your clients. With a third party merchant account, you basically go into your account, click "create item," decide how much to sell that item for, and
decide if its going to be a recurring charge or not. Once you decide all that, they give you a link to provide your customers
with. Your customers will then go to this link to signup with you.
We believe paypal will never be shut down due to is size,
power, and the fact it does background checks on the accounts they issue through
bank account verification, along with many other security checks which weren't
in place with paysystems.
Fees
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Company |
Paypal |
CDG Commerce ** |
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Per transaction |
2.9% + .30 cents per transaction |
2.05% + .25 cents per transaction |
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Monthly Fees |
$0.00 |
$10.00 |
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Setup Fee |
$0.00 |
$75.00 |
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Processing Minimum |
No |
Yes |
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Credit approval |
No |
Yes |
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Bank account Required |
No |
yes |
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How they pay you.. |
bank deposits, debit card, or check. |
daily deposit into your bank account. |
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Link |
Paypal |
CDG Commerce Application Form |
** Note: CDG has a monthly minimum of $25.00 in transaction fees, so if you sell $0 worth
of goods you have to pay an extra $25.00 for not reaching their minimum.
Benefits and Disadvantages
Paypal
Paypal is the quickest way to start collecting payments and millions already have a paypal account.
Paypal has a VERY strong member base. Even if you have your own merchant account it would be silly not to also take payments using Paypal.
Over 15% of our sales are done through people who refuse to use anything but Paypal.
A big benefit with Paypal is that you can have a debit card sent out, and have instant access to your funds!
Paypal will run the shopping cart for you so it's hassle free, and no coding knowledge is needed.
There are no monthly fees with Paypal since you are only charged when you sell.
Paypal allows you to deposit earned funds into your bank, spend them using a debit card, or request a check.
If you plan on only having a paypal merchant account keep in mind you will be
losing sales due to the fact many countries aren't supported by paypal, and some
people won't signup with you if they only see paypal. (They might think of you
as an unstable company due to you not having your own merchant account with
someone like CDG Commerce.) Another benefit of paypal is that it integrates
fairly well into the free billing manager we include as well as others like
modernbill.
CDG Commerce
Advantages to CDG includes the lowest rates, more control, and the power to bill your clients for what they owe
at any time, and the fact that this works PERFECTLY with the free billing
manager we offer as well as the other major billing systems out there such as
modernbill. If you are doing a decent amount in monthly revenue a cdg merchant
account is a must. If you are brand new with no income you are better off
getting going with a paypal account.
The downside... monthly minimum, monthly $10 statement fee, a credit check to
get started, and a more complicated signup process. You will also need to
purchase a private SSL which runs about $75 a year. It does not come with a
shopping cart so it would be wise to use this with something such as the
autopilot billing manager we include. One of the biggest disadvantages is fraud
signups. We know how to catch the fraud and pretty much stop them as soon as
they order, but if you don't check if a signup is fraud and it turns out to be
you will end up with a $19.95 chargeback fee. If
you wish to start the process in getting signed up with CDG please fill out the
application form
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If you have any questions please click above or check out our FAQ's.
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