Merchant Accounts- It’s Types And The Way Of Processing Transactions

Merchant accounts play a major role for the success of any business in the competitive world of today. The trend has changed now to payment by credit cards instead of cash. This cannot be made available without the help of merchant accounts. Merchant accounts help to expand a business. They accept all major credit cards like VISA and Master Card. The banks also use the same network.

Previously, retail accounts were sufficient enough to do business. But now since the advent of credit and debit cards, customers want their payment to be made though these cards and hence the need of merchant accounts has risen. If this facility is not provided, there are low chances of retaining their customers and so it has become a necessity now.

The process of payment through credit cards is easy and convenient. The card is swiped in the merchant’s swiping machine. The transaction will start processing. The customer’s credit card provider issues the authorization for the transaction to get processed. If it is accepted and approved by the client, the amount will get transferred to the merchant’s bank. This process occur a huge number of times across the world.

The processing of one such transaction involves many steps. The customer needs to provide his credit card details to the merchant either directly or through telephone or online. The information will be passed on to the merchant’s bank. The merchant bank will make the payment after verification and requests the payment from the customer’s bank. There will be some transaction charges imposed every time the merchant accepts a payment. The transaction details are also provided to the customer’s bank. This goes on as a cycle until the customer clears off his bills at the end of the month.

There are different types of merchant accounts based on various factors. Now according to the physical presence of a credit card or a debit card, the merchant accounts can be classified as two main types.

1.     Card present merchant accounts:

If the card is present physically, all types of payment can be processed by this account. The machine provided to the merchants is used for swiping the cards and processing payments. The information regarding the card is obtained from the magnetic stripe of the card. In these types of accounts, the probability of fraudulency is very low since the owner of the card himself will be present during the processing of the transaction. Hence this account charges a low processing fee for the transactions.

2.     Cards not present Merchant accounts

It involves the payment types where the physical presence of a card is not strictly needed. The customer can give the card details manually to the merchant banks from a distant place using telephone or a web browser. But the probability of fraudulency is more here since the merchant does not directly contact his customer. A genius in Internet can obtain the information of any card by installing an adware in the system used by an online purchaser.

This type is further divided into two namely

·         Ecommerce Merchant Accounts

Web-based merchants who have online businesses use this. Here the card details are given by the merchant in a form which is available in his website. This information will be forwarded to the merchant’s bank for processing through a payment gateway.

·         Mail order and Telephone order merchant accounts

The merchants use this mode of payment by receiving the customer’s card details through telephone or the merchant in the form of the merchant bank will enter email and it.

Power Pay Services.com is one of the providers who offer all of these above stated accounts at very low rates. You will save a lot of amount by registering with them. They have made a mark in the payment processing industry with their low fees and great 24x7 customer support. Many business owners have realized their company’s hidden potential by tapping it by opening merchant accounts with Power Pay Services.com.

 Setup a credit card processing merchant accounts to accept credit cards today!