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Readers speak... Getting a merchant account
Now, to answer a question I posed a few weeks back.
On October 10th, I asked Good Experience readers a "quick question on merchant accounts": since I had had bad experiences with Cardservice International, did anyone have suggestions for a better way to get merchant accounts and/or a credit card gateway?
Thanks to everyone who replied. Here's what everyone said:
THE READERS' PICK: AuthorizeNet.
http://www.authorizenet.com - about a third of all reader responses said to choose authorize.net. "They are superb." "Their service is good and setup process was very easy." "The reason I like working with AuthorizeNet is because they allow you to have complete control over your shopping experience and only use AuthorizeNet when you need a credit card to be authorized. The user never leaves your site."
... Multiple responses said *not* to use CardService International, because of bad past experiences.
... And finally, one reader's tip: "The best time to sign up for merchant account processing is near the end of the month. Most of the reps have quotas and you can get them to waive the set-up fee."
Other pointers from readers:
- http://www.paymentech.net - Paymentech got two referrals from readers.
- http://www.ERSVP.com - event registration
- http://www.sporg.com - event registration
- http://www.1ShoppingCart.com - web store
- http://www.trustcommerce.com - merchant account/gateway
- http://www.bmrw.com/cartpro.php - Cart Pro from BMRW
- http://netbilling.com - for gateway (goes between merchant account and website)
- http://www.kagi.com - good for shareware and other types of sales
- http://www.internetsecure.com
- Signature Card Services - +1.323.966.0500 - "great customer service" for merchant account setup
- National Processing Company - ask for "skipjack" processing gateway
- Card Payment Systems - +1.888.322.7372
- NPC htp://www.npc.net
- Interchange http://www.icdevgroup.org - to build shopping cart
And from (biased) readers who sell such systems themselves...
- Nice note from someone at Citigroup about their merchant services.
- http://www.e-businesscoach.com - Total Blue System from E-business Coach
- http://tinyurl.com/u41w - very nice reader from Intuit reminded me that QuickBooks users can get a merchant account through Intuit.
For downloading reports:
http://www.esellerate.net/eseller_webstore.asp
For selling/shipping products like DVDs:
http://store.yahoo.com