Merchant Accounts (best/cheapest rates)

Posted on: Tue, 12/04/2005 - 18:23
Merchant Accounts (best/cheapest rates)

Hi, I’m in the process of starting my own business (Doh, just like everyone else reading this) anyway I’ve been quoted by Natwest (lovely people, passed my business plan and gave me my starting overdraft) Streamline for their merchant (all credit / debit cards) rates as,

STATIC (office machine0 £200 set-up, £20 per month and 35p each debit transaction, 2.8% credit transaction
MOBILE (roaming machine) £260 set-up, £30 per month and the transaction rates the same

Is this the best deal I can get, Is anybody getting better rates as a start-up? This is not an on-line payment system, I’m using Ebay for that (more about that at a later date) it’s a ‘by phone’ and payment in person system.

Thanks in advance for any help, Keith.


Posted on: Thu, 14/04/2005 - 16:16 #1
Merchant Accounts (best/cheapest rates)

Hi Keith,

In answer to Keith jackson

I found when I started that it was impossible to get a merchant account due to my bad credit and no amount of correcting entries in my credit reference did any good...

So therefore if your in the same position in starting up as I was TRY

Worldpay...setup fee is around £220 and you can start accepting payments through their World access service without having an online website. They also have fraud protection etc. and have a helpful support team. However they do charge 5% of total transactions...Its the price you pay to get the merchant account with them...this compares to 2-3% merchant account directly with your Bank.

Once you get going get a merchant account from your Bank...they usually want you trading for 6mths to a year before they will give you a merchant account...

Tie this in with a company called www.protx.com/ the benefits of which are listed below:
""""""
There are two pricing packages which are driven by your website's authorised transaction volume. Protx do not charge for unauthorised transactions, nor include them in our volume calculations.

Whichever package is appropriate for you, there are:

no set up or integration fees
no annual subscription charges
no additional charges for different payment cards
no additional charges for Verified by Visa
no fees for multiple currencies
no fees for additional terminal IDs
no percentage transaction fees
no additional charges for MasterCard Secure Code""""""""""""

Go for the small business service and then they will automatically move you to the Corporation service once your no. of transactions goes above 1000

Hope this helps

Regards,

Raza

Posted on: Sun, 15/05/2005 - 12:22 #2
Best way of taking 'card not present' transactions?

Hi everyone!

The type of business I'm intending on starting will be taking payment in two ways, cheque with order and credit card details with order - submitted on a paper order form (sounds old fashioned but they will be sending additional items along with the form). Much as I love the idea of having a swanky credit card terminal I won't actually have a card present to swipe, just the details. Is there any online service that can do this and save me money paying a bank for the kit and installing a phone line for it?

I did consider using the supplied card details to pay into a PayPal account registered to the company, but I figure this is a definite misuse and leaves me open to being suspected of card fraud by PayPal... a quick way to kill a business!

Also the company will likely be taking all transactions in the space of three or four months each year, leaving me paying £20 a month on a card terminal that will be in a cupboard most of the year.

Any ideas are most welcome,
Tom.