I am hoping to start an E Commerce business that will involve customers paying by credit card. Will I need to have a special type of account? Also is this only handled by certain banks, and do you know what they charge to set the account up and the charge for each separate transaction?
E Business
Aug 02, 2004
5 Replies
Depends on the bank but generally you need a business account, merchant account and you pay an installation fee (can be 250) and monthly fee for the PDQ (15-25).
Barclays hold the largest chunk of the market
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expect 2-3% of the transaction to be lost in card fees and an additional 1-2% above that, debit cards can be as much as 5%. Not forgetting the usual costs associated with business and merchant accounts, and the costs for transferring between the two.
HSBC are a little more reasonable.
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There's always services like WorldPay or PayPal *cough*.
Az.
It all depends on the frequency of purchases. If you're only going to take a couple of large sales every month, or at irregular intervals, then it makes a lot of sense to use PayPal. The rates compare favourably with bank merchant accounts, and there are no other fees to consider.
"Aztech" wrote
... or as little as 50p on any sized transaction - eg less than 0.1% if transaction exceeds 500 !!
Not with Barclays!
Az.
There are very many organisations selling and reselling packages.
The top limit is determined only by what someone somewhere is willing to pay. Shop around and look for hidden charges. After a few months, rethink your choice when you can better predict your transaction patterns.
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