Pricing and Costs of Merchant Services

Find low-cost merchant card services for your business

These days when no customer wants to carry around cash, it is important for businesses to offer the alternative payment processing options provided by merchant services. This way, you can accept cash, checks, credit and debit cards at your store. Credit card merchant services allow you to accept and receive credit card payments from your retail store, as well as an online store.

There are many low-cost merchant services for small businesses, though the pricing and costs of merchant services will range depending on the service. Categories include retail, phone orders and online processing. The price will change according to the following:

1. Whether the merchant credit card accounts also work with debit cards.

2. How fast payments are processed through the account.

3. What fees you must pay for each transaction.

 

Purchase merchant card services for you online business

Whether you are expanding your retail services to include an online presence or your online store is a startup, a merchant account is necessary for processing payments from online customers. Monthly fees for an online merchant account can range from $10 to $20. This, however, does not include the fees per transaction, which for online services are around 2.25 percent.
Try: Monroe Bank offers merchant credit card services for retail and online stores that include features like secure gateways and real-time transactions. If you're looking for more information on merchant accounts, check out the buyer's guide from MerchantSeek.

Choose merchant services providers for phone and mail orders

While millions of people that shop online, there are still people who don't feel comfortable ordering off the Internet. For those who don't like shopping online but still want to shop from home, there are still many companies that offer phone and mail orders. These services can cost anywhere from $15 to $25 a month, plus fees per transaction; for mail orders this is around 2.15 percent.
Try: Flagship Merchant Services provides fast and secure low-cost merchant services for small business that take phone and mail orders. Ensight Merchant Services provides tips on setting up your merchant account for phone and mail orders.

Set up merchant account services for retailers

Another way to accept credit card payments is to do it through a retail store. This is probably the most common place you will find credit card transactions. The most important aspect of a retailer account is the speed of processing the payments and receiving the money. Merchant accounts for retailers can cost $25 a month for most accounts. Retailers also get the smallest transaction fees, at around 1.66 percent.
Try: Merchant Service Group provides information on the types of equipment you will need to accept credit and debit payments through your retail store. Total Merchant Services provides merchant accounts tailored to the needs of retailers, plus gives you the option of choosing free equipment with your new account.

 

• If you find yourself with a lot of merchant services information and still aren't sure which service to choose for your business, try using a merchant services comparison to see which company can give you the best service for your money.

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