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The ability to process credit cards is a critical element in any business. Just by accepting credit cards, you can double the size of your sales transactions. The average cash transaction for any business is $30 while the average credit card transaction is $70. If you are selling to the public, credit cards can improve your profits. However, not all merchant account providers are created equal. It is important to know what you need and where to find it.
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There are three elements which every business needs to have to conduct business on the Internet: a web site, a merchant account, and a gateway. EZ-Net Tools™ provides the web site while your bank provides the merchant account. Your bank can supply a processing terminal which will allow you to read the magnetic code on the back of credit cards. You may have noticed these at most retail stores.
But, since you are doing business over the Internet, you can't pass the card through the terminal. So, you need to punch in the numbers manually. You may already have one of these for your business. If this is the case, you can easily retrieve your orders through Retrieve Orders located in the Administrative Tools and key in the credit card numbers. If you deal with back orders, we advise this method so you don't upset your customers by processing the credit card days, weeks, or months before the product is shipped to them. In fact, there are laws prohibiting premature credit card processing. If you sell high dollar items, we also advise you to verify the authenticity of the order before you ship the order. You, the merchant, are at risk if you're dealing with a stolen or fraudulent credit card.
There are also many businesses that will benefit from automated transactions. These are the transactions that use the technology of the Internet to immediately process the credit card. A gateway is the means of transferring and verifying the transaction from your web site to the credit card processor. The e-commerce tools in EZ-Net Tools™ have been developed to integrate seamlessly with Authorize.Net, one of the leading gateways in the industry, and Quick Commerce.
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Things to know when searching for a Merchant Account
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When you apply for a merchant account and you want to accept automated transactions, you will want to find out if the support Authorize.Net or Quick Commerce. If your merchant account does not use either of these gateways, you will not be able to process credit cards automatically with the EZ-Net Tools™
Also, you will soon learn a new definition of a "discount" rate. A discount rate, in this case, is a fee that is paid for each credit card transaction processed from your site. A processor discounts your credit card transaction by a certain percentage. That discount rate is generally higher on Internet or Mail Order transactions because there is a greater risk of loss to the credit card processor. Discount rates can vary from provider to provider, but they are not the only factor to base your decision on. A common ploy used by some merchant account providers in discounting is to quote a low discount rate, but then they will charge fees for every other service (monthly fees, transmittal fees, etc). Sometimes the processor with the highest discount rate can be the least expensive in the long run. Be sure to take this into consideration and look at all the cost involved.
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