When choosing to sell products or services online there are many different ways to accept major credit cards and checks online without having to get bogged down into long-term agreements with banks or other financial agencies. Since the inception of companies like Paypal, more and more payment processor type of websites have been cropping up and are willing to help your business grow by accepting and processing credit transactions for a nominal fee or percentage of sale.



What worries a lot of first-time web masters is how do you determine that your customer as well as your bank account is protected from cyber theft? Most credit card processing sites offer a technology called SSL (Secure Socket Layer) this technology provides a 128-bit level of encryption for the data that is passing between your customer and the processors web site. You can always verify if the site is encrypted by the https in they URL (Universal Resource Locator). You can also check the bottom right hand corner of your browser for a small gold key. If both of these conditions exist, then you are safe to transfer information between this processor. In the wake of new processors there are reputable processors that will provide this service honorably.



2Checkout.com provides a unique opportunity to sell your goods or services online. You will have to pay a $49 setup fee. There is no credit check or no merchant account necessary to use. Literally, sign up and start selling! 2CO also charges a transaction percentage rate of 5.5 percent and a flat .45 per transaction. Depending on the overall pricing structure these fee are small and negligible to the price to pay to sell your product through their 2CO’s web portal. Once you add your products to 2CO’s database you would then copy and paste source code into your web page for each product or service. 2CO also lets you customize the checkout page with your headers and footers. You are paid twice a month via electronic transfer or check. 2CO is in full cooperation with the BBB Online. 



Note: 2Checkout only offers the ability for your customers to be billed in US Funds



Internet Secure provides a full merchant account to Canadian and US companies. Internet Secure provides recurring billing in both US and Canadian dollars. With Internet Secure there is $99 setup fee. Payouts to your account are on the 15th and 30th of the month directly to your bank account.

Note: Internet Secure allows you to offer US and Canadian Funds for your customer to be billed.



Authorize.net offers a wider range of services similar to Mypaysystems.com. Authorize.net handles all of its transactions through its own specialized software that is secure and reliable. However, Authorize.net will make you use a reseller to purchase the technology needed to process credit transactions. The rates and fees you will be charged commensurate with creditworthiness as well as paying a premium to a reseller for setting up your merchant account. Authorize.net provides you with a full merchant account, meaning your company name will appear on credit card statements.

Note: Authorize.net only offers the ability for your customers to be billed in US Funds



PSIgate.com offers a scaled back version of merchant account. You must first obtain a merchant account from a reputable financial institution. Since creditworthiness will be an issue it will also factor how much your interest rate per transaction is. PSIgate.com does offer a quality e-commerce solution that once you have been approved you can quickly implement into your website.

Note: PSIgate allows you to offer US and Canadian Funds for your customer to be billed.



In short, your customer’s security as well as your business should always remain paramount when signing up for a new merchant account system with a reputable e-commerce vendor. It is good to try several vendors and sign up with the one that best suits your needs.

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