How can your customers pay you with credit cards or echecks online? How can you accept credit card payments on your web site or blog? How do you accept online payments without a merchant account?
The vast majority of online customers will pay by credit card, debit card, electronic check, or PayPal. Very few people will mail a check or money order. If you are not accepting credit cards online via a secured server, you will lose sales. Accept as many card types and payments methods as you can.
To accept online payments, you’ll typically need a merchant account, a payment gateway and a shopping cart. But I’ll show you below how you can receive online payments without needing a merchant account.
A shopping cart collects the payment information, communicates with the payment processor and gateway, verifies that the credit card or echeck is good, and returns the authorization or denial to your site. This all happens almost instantly.
There are several easy solutions to accept instant, secure online payments.
First, you’ll have to decide whether you want to get your own merchant account or not. You’ll need good credit to be accepted for a merchant account. You’ll have to pay monthly fees for both the merchant account and the software you’ll need to process the payments. But there are easy solutions that allow you to take payments online without having your own merchant account.
Third party providers allow you to take payments online without having your own merchant account and without paying monthly fees.
A third party provider gives you a link to a secure site where your customers place orders using their credit card or echeck. You receive your payment from the provider instead of from a bank or financial institution.
Benefits: No monthly charges.
Popular third party payment processors include:
- Many people online want to pay with Paypal. You need a PayPal account if you’re going to sell any services or products online even you’re accepting other payment methods or have your own merchant account.
- No Sign up fee, no monthly fees.
- Lower transaction fees than other merchants. 2.2%-2.9% of sales + $0.30 USD per transaction.
- You can transfer money into your bank account and it gets there in approximately 4 business days.
- Sign up for a Paypal account here.
- Clickbank is a great choice for digital products (e.g. ebook & software) but doesn’t not allow sales of physical products (unless they are complimentary to digital products).$49.95 activation fee - no monthly fees - $1.00 per transaction + 7.5% of sales.
- Clickbank accepts credit cards, online checks, and PayPal payments.
- Benefit: Offers a build-in affiliate program with a lot of exposure of affiliates who are looking to promote products.
- Check out Clickbank here.
2checkout
I used to use and recommend 2checkout but they recently changed their rules and I don’t recommend them anymore.
E-Junkie (Shopping Cart)
A flat monthly subscription fee starting at $5/mo. There is no no transaction fee and no bandwidth cost. You only need to subscribe when your free trial is over.
This is the only shopping cart I’m mentioning here that I haven’t used personally but I’m including it here because it’s a popular and inexpensive shopping cart that many people recommend. I have several friends who are using it to sell ebooks and this is what they’re saying about E-Junkie:
- Flexible and easy to use.
- You can easily create discounts, make them expire, change prices, offer affiliate deals, send free copies out, and more.
- They also teach you how to code carts to change their look or turn them into a text link which is a great feature for newbies.
Advantages of third party providers: It’s easier and faster to use a third party provider. You don’t have to quality for a merchant account which typically involves having good credit. And you save the monthly fees for both the merchant account and the shopping cart. Typical fees include an activation fee and transaction fees.
Disadvantage of third party providers: The transaction fees are higher than you would pay when having your own merchant account. When you start generating enough sales, you can switch to a traditional merchant provider to save on transaction fees.
As mentioned above, when you start making enough sales, you’ll pay less transaction fees by having your own merchant account.
You’ll typically pay an activation fee and monthly fees for both the merchant account and the shopping cart (approximately $30/month for each).
Shopping carts
It’s essential to accept credit cards when doing business online. Give your customers several different payment options to order your products or services. Some customers don’t have a credit card or don’t like to order online, so you still want to give them the option of sending you a money order.
Here’s the legal mumbo jumbo:
I only recommend products I believe in whether they have affiliate programs or not. I have used most of the products I’m recommending for my own web sites or clients’ web sites. Some links are affiliate links, and if you click on an affiliate link and purchase something, I might get paid a small commission.
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