[nycbug-talk] Merchant Accounts

[alex at pilosoft.com]

On Tue, 14 Sep 2004, Kevin Reiter wrote:

> I know this is completely off-list, but has anyone ever found anything
> in the way of a good merchant service company?  I was (well, still am
> until tomorrow) using American Paywise, but I'm tired of the BS they've
> been trying to spoon feed me, especially when it comes to getting
> ecommerce setup.  I'm not doing the PayPal thing, except for webhosting
> (until I get the ecommerce thing online) - I'm looking for anyone who's
> had a good experience with an actual merchant service company.

Don't go with intermediaries to get your merchant account. Get a merchant
account at a real bank, and contract with intermediary to *process* your
transactions only. Alternatively, download redhat CCVS and submit your
transactions over the dialup modem directly to your bank.

The bank that you have a business checking account will be glad to approve
you for a merchant account.

That being said - and despite the above advice, I have had good experience
with paymentech (www.paymentech.net) who are both my bank (well, their
affiliate company) and online processor.


-alex