Getting Your Merchant Account

In a past article, I talked about some of the reasons why you may consider getting a merchant account.

Once the decision was made to get it, the process was far less stressful than I expected. I guess I thought I was going to be grilled by a bank as to why I needed one and what proof did I have that I was worthy of it.

That wasn't the case at all. In fact, I found it easy.

Making The Decision To Get One

I probably put off getting a merchant account longer than I should have. I was having enough sales every month to justify the cost savings but I didn't do it.

Finally I knew I wanted to sell physical products and I was about to start my subscription web site. These lead me to finally apply for a merchant account.

If I knew how easy it was, I would have done it sooner.

What Type of Merchant Account "Gateway"

There are certain ways that an online merchant account can communicate with a web site. These "gateways" are simply standardized ways to help make it easy to integrate a web site with a merchant account.

Since I was getting a Membergate site for this subscription site, I found out what gateway type I needed for my merchant account. Membergate uses the most common gateway types. It can handle either Authorizenet, Verisign or Protx (UK) for merchant accounts.

There are lists of qualified merchant account vendors which have these types of accounts: Authorizenet
Verisign
Protx

Someone I respected recommended www.totalmerchantservices.com and I decided to use them.

I talked to a Todd Sumrall. He was very helpful on the phone and promptly got back to a few email questions I had.

He explained that there were certain things that should be in place when I submit my merchant account application:

• My site should be functional and nearly complete (not a lot of "Coming soon!" pages)
• I had to have my companies contact information (including mailing address and phone number) on the site
• the guarantee policy must be clearly stated. Even if you don't plan on offering one, then you at least need to state it

Once I confirmed that all of that was in place, I printed out pages from my web site. I circled the parts which they required and included them with my application when I faxed it.

Why they couldn't just bring it up online is beyond me, but maybe thats a quick prescreening that they give before they check out the site further.

Todd also told me that the merchant account would be calling the phone number I had listed on my site.

I needed to make sure that I answered it with my company name to confirm that it was a legitimate business to the merchant account provider.

TIP: I was able to specify what I wanted to appear on credit card statements. I thought Smallbusinesswebsite.com was most appropriate. Even though my company name is different than that, they were able to put what I wanted on the credit card statement line.

I submitted my paperwork and a few hours later they called my phone to confirm that was working ok.

A couple of hours later I received confirmation that I had been approved.

They provided details of how to log in and other information to get the account integrated with my web site. They also told me what my monthly limit was based on the average product sale price I gave them. They explained that after a few months, I could request an increase for even higher amounts. They wanted to see a sales history though in order to minimize their risks.

Some of the things that helped speed up the process:

• I paid attention to all of their requirements. I double checked that they were in place before I sent in the application.
• My credit is excellent so that made things easier for them. Since they have a clear history of any potential risk factors, they could approve it quickly.

Now don't assume you are going to get yours so quickly. It might have been a light work load day for them or other reasons. I was told originally to expect it to take several days. This is an estimate for a U.S. Merchant account. You can reach Todd Sumrall here if you are interested in your own U.S. or Canadian Merchant account.

Its important to note that a UK account (or other countries) may take longer. They may also have different criteria for applying for the account in the first place. A phone call or email will usually give you a clear idea of what to expect.

All together it was an easy experience and it helped to have everything in place as they instruct.