Having A Dependable Online Credit Card Processing Service Is A Must For Any Successfull Internet Business.

The ability to sell through the Internet has opened up great opportunities, but with opportunity comes responsibility. When processing sales online you have to offer a secure way to collect the money or most consumers will purchase from someone else. This means you have to find an online credit card processing service that is suitable to you and your customers.

There are three things to look for when comparing online credit card processing services:

1. Opening an account must be fast and simple.
2. The fees must be within reason.
3. They must not object to the type of products you will be selling.

You can’t avoid the fees as that is how payment processing services make their own money, but you can shop around to use the services that are most reasonable.

Following are the best online credit card processing services I have found to date along with an explanation of why I deem them the best.

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1. PayPal (2.9% to 3.9% typical fee)

You can’t conduct business online in most cases without a PayPal account. This is the most respected and well known longstanding online credit card processing service so most customers will already have their own account and will feel comfortable paying through this service.

It doesn’t cost anything to sign up for an account, but you will need to upgrade to Business or Premier status if you plan to sell a lot of product or accept money for services online. You will never have to send in any verification of who you are or go through a credit check to do this. To become a Business or Premier account you will just link your account to a credit card and a bank account. PayPal sends small credits to these accounts along with special codes, which you return to the site to input as a method of verifying you own those accounts.

Once you have your account you can easily collect money through bank transfer, debit cards, credit cards, eCheck, or PayPal accounts. There are also a lot of tools available to make accepting payments and handling subscriptions easy.

For most people the fees will not be the lowest, but since all of your customers already know and trust PayPal it has its advantages regardless. Since many of the best membership scripts already have PayPal formatted in, this is another advantage.

You wouldn’t have to look hard to find some bad reports about PayPal, but for the most part honest entrepreneurs and shoppers have no problems.

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2. Authorize (no set fees)

There is one inconvenience right off the bat with this online credit card processing service: you have to contact them for a quote to determine what your fees might be. You will also need to send in verification documents and they will run a credit check. Those with poor or questionable credit history will be denied altogether.

If you can get approved, the rates tend to be more affordable than Paypal for many people. You will need to secure a Merchant Account so you can accept payment from credit cards, debit cards and eCheck. You will actually be able to process credit cards directly from your own website yourself, rather than sending it through a separate service. This is why the credit check is necessary.

Authorize.net is a bit more complicated since a developer will be needed to get the payments going. Once you get your account set up you will have to pay set-up fees as well as monthly fees, which makes this the best option only for businesses accepting thousands of dollars every month.

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3. SWReg (2.9% plus $1 typical fees)

If for some reason you cannot use PayPal, this is a reasonable online credit card processing service to use. They do not run credit checks and never require you to send in verification documents. You can accept credit cards and PayPal payments only and they offer some unique features that work if you are selling informational products.

For instance, you can upload your informational product and allow SWReg to deal with actual distribution when a purchase is made. This eliminates the need for a download manager!

The only possible downside is you may need to code this in to integrate with your online store or a membership script.

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4. Money Bookers (1.9% typical fee)

Money Bookers is the British equivalent to PayPal, but they are more liberal when it comes to accepting accounts from people from different countries. You can quickly set up a free account and start receiving payments right away. You will be able to accept payments from credit and debit cards, eCheck, and bank wire.

This is a favorite for marketers in Asian and European countries, but it is not included in most e-commerce and membership scripts. You may need to have someone customize your script to work with this online credit card processing service.

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5. 2Checkout (5.5% plus $0.45 typical fee)

This is another suitable option if you cannot use PayPal for some reason, though you can accept payment from PayPal accounts using this service. They are definitely not the most affordable option and they do require you to send in verification documents, plus you have to pay a $50 fee to setup your account.

The advantage with this online credit card processing service is you are given a debit card which can be used to withdraw funds from your 2Checkout account at an ATM machine.

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