Internet Merchant Account – What Is It

If you run a website for your online business and make sales online, you are going to need an Internet merchant account to process credit card transactions. An Internet merchant account is a bit different from a regular account for a bricks-and-mortar retail store. Read on for more information. With an Internet merchant account, your online customers can pay you with their credit card by entering their credit card number and associated information directly into a form on your website. So you can accept credit card orders without requiring that your customer fax, mail or telephone you with their credit card payment information. Credit card orders accepted online with your Internet merchant account are accepted on a secure web page. These pages are identifiable by, in the address bar of your browser, the URL prefix, “https” instead of the usual “http”. The “s” in the prefix means “secure” and refers to SSL – Secure Socket Layer encryption technology that protects information entered on that page and transmitted via the Internet. You will need a SSL certificate, and that is usually provided as part of your Internet merchant account by the merchant services provider (MSP) you choose to process your credit card transactions. Transactions processed online in this way are usually approved in “real time” via an Internet payment gateway. This means that as soon as your customer “checks out” and clicks “Submit” the credit card is charged and the transaction is processed. If you do not do a lot of business online, you do not necessarily have to have a special Internet merchant account set up. You can utilize a credit card terminal like those in bricks-and-mortar stores, or any credit card processing software that allows you to manually key in your customer’s credit card information. The disadvantage to doing this is that manually keyed-in transactions are going to be processed by your bankcard processor at their Non-Qualified rate, the highest rate tier. This is because there is a higher risk of fraud when a credit card is not physically swiped through your terminal and the cardholder physically present in your store. There are many things that you should learn about Visa Merchant Account. Being a businessman, you should understand that having your own Visa Merchant Account will help your business and having your own Visa Merchant Account will give you an edge over your competitors.