Setting Up Merchant Facilities

There will come a time when a client wants to pay by credit card, but you haven’t got a merchant account set up. What do you do?

The fastest thing to set up is a Paypal account which is used widely in many countries these days, and very safely – despite the occasional rumours that do the rounds. Why would eBay equate themselves with Paypal if they didn’t trust their payment system?

Takes about 3 days to open the account but they don’t charge to it, but will enter a couple of things to your credit card account and ask you to verify what they are on your statement so you can prove you own that card – their way of making sure you are who you say you are.

After that, add your cheque (check) or bank account details and the client can email you a payment via Paypal – you get instant notification and can log in and withdraw to your account. Takes 2-3 days for it to go through. They do the currency conversions for you and their merchant fees are the same as Bendigo Bank in Australia so not expensive. Very easy way to make sure you can handle payments.

They also have options for set up regular subscription payments, donations, payments links and images and heaps of other things – it’s worthwhile checking it out! KMT

merchant facility, credit cards, Paypal, subscriptions

Addendum:  I saw Des Walsh’s post and appreciated his link.  He mentioned Stratapay on his post and I agree – that is another good option for those who live and work in Australia.  Originally designed for strata title holders, the system was enhanced to welcome uni students and then later on tradees and then the wider small business community in Australia.  Definitely worth looking at – particularly if you don’t have a credit card of your own to set up a Paypal account.