Payment Methods

So which credit cards will you accept online? Will it be Visa, MasterCard, Discover, JCB, American Express, or another credit card? Will you accept them all or a combination? In order to accept credit cards, you first must have a merchant account. Once you obtain a merchant account, you will need to find out which credit cards the account allows you to accept. If you are using Paymentech, you will be automatically set up to accept Visa, MasterCard, and Diner's Club payments.

Credit Card Fees

Every time an order is placed, a fee is imposed by the merchant account provider and is paid by the merchant. The fee is a percentage of the total sale, which includes any shipping and handling. As mentioned in Chapter 6, the percentage can range between 2% and 3% for Visa, MasterCard, and Discover, and between 3% and 5% for American Express. So if your discount rate for a Visa card is 2%, your Merchant Bank will take 2%or $2 of that $100 customer purchaseand deposit the remainder in your bank account. The actual percentage will depend on your type of business, average sale, and/or monthly volume.

The following is a list of a few credit card companies and their phone numbers for you to contact regarding their fees.

• American Express/Optima (americanexpress.com): [phone]

• Diners Club/Carte Blanche (dinersclub.com): [phone]

• Novus/Discover (discover.com): [phone]

• JCB (jcbcorporate.com): [phone]

Tip:

Contact your merchant account provider and ask which credit card payment types their system can process. They may also have online applications on their website to apply for other credit card companies.

Accepting Other Types of Credit Cards

For all other credit cards, you will need to contact the credit card company you would like to use and apply for an account. You will then need to contact your merchant account provider once you get approval from that particular credit card. Once that is set up, you can then go into the Payment Methods form to add the new credit cards you would like to accept so that they will appear on the checkout payment form.

Accepting PayPal

What if you don't want a merchant account or if you don't meet the requirements for a merchant account and would like to use PayPal (paypal.com) as your payment method instead? Yahoo! Merchant Solutions is also integrated with PayPal Express. Customers to your store can have an option to pay via a PayPal account or use their credit cards to pay through PayPal. With PayPal, there are no monthly fees or setup fees. Using PayPal can be an alternative for hobbyists. It doesn't require a corporate account or EIN. You can run PayPal off your personal debit, checking, or credit card.

PayPal, an eBay company (ebay.com), has more than 78 million members worldwide and is available in 56 countries and regions. PayPal was started as a secure and inexpensive solution to send money from one individual to another online. Now PayPal offers solutions to accept credit cards, bank transfers, and debit cards on your website and via email.

For more information, please visit store.yahoo.com.