Free merchant account

Is there such a thing? If there is what should you watch out for . Anything free comes with strings attached so it's not really free afterall.

[Jeremy]

I don't know of any free ones, but usually the merchant account is the cheap part of accepting credit cards. Typically it's a $10-$50 a month fee. The real charges come from the per transaction fee with your processing provider. Most of these processing providers have partnered with merchant accounts to sell the whole thing as one package.

You can have your credit card payment without shelling out funds if you use Plimus www.plimus.com . This provider collects a certain percentage from your sales on a per transaction basis. Its remittance is not instant as your sales collection is sent on a monthly basis.

Well there's PayPal and other services like that.

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stealth;906 You can have your credit card payment without shelling out funds if you use Plimus www.plimus.com . This provider collects a certain percentage from your sales on a per transaction basis. Its remittance is not instant as your sales collection is sent on a monthly basis.

This is exactly the information I was searching for the other day, but I could not get past the scammers in the Google search. I would like to have an account like this that goes on the per sale fee. Thank you.

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Originally Posted by stealth

You can have your credit card payment without shelling out funds if you use Plimus Plimus - Next Generation Software Registration services and eCommerce . This provider collects a certain percentage from your sales on a per transaction basis. Its remittance is not instant as your sales collection is sent on a monthly basis.

Thanks, I too (like Visa Mom) have been looking for something of this sort, but when I searched Google I did not find any good ones like this (if you recommended it I think it is good)

I don't think there can be a "free" one.. They will take a fee from somewhere, mabye in an area you usually wouldn't look at. It's never free and there has to be a catch somewhere. Always read the small fine print

What will be the benefit for the provider if they dont collect a fee for the transaction

Only the service charge will differ .Paypal offers the best rate

paypal might offer the best rates, but they are known to close your account and take your money too.

There aren't really any benefits from free merchant accounts. Unless there is a catch somewhere....

I've been in direct marketing for years. I believe that you need to take the major credit cards, and then consider PayPal (depending on what you are selling). Get a merchant account (Visa, MC, Disc) from the bank you use for your business, they probably won't charge you more than 2.5% all-in, and your customer service experience will be better. You have to apply for Amex on your own. If you're just starting a business, this will be a fire-and-forget exercise. You will have more important things to worry about than your merchant account. If you get big, review rates and performance every 6 months.