One of the most critical decisions business owners have to make is how they are going to process payments from their website. Entrepreneurs frequently find themselves asking if a merchant account is what they need or if they need a private payment system (a “PPS”) such as PayPal or the upcoming system from Google.

“The bottom line is that a small merchant has a lot of tough decisions to make in getting a business online,” said John Waldron, vice president for ecommerce sales for e-onlinedata, a merchant account provider specializing in ecommerce processing. “The most critical decision is payments. If you’re not going to get paid for your efforts, you might as well not do it in the first place. It comes down to getting paid; that’s why you’re doing it.”

In this article, you will learn how online credit card payment processing works, how to accept credit card on your website, issues to handle when accepting credit card payment on your website, and 3rd party credit card processors. So, how does it work? First, you'll need to have a merchant account. In fact, a special type of merchant account called internet merchant account. Don't worry if you don't have one now. I will show you how your website can still accept credit card even without a merchant account. It is a special banking account that enables you to process credit card payment from your customers.

For online retailers looking to add real-time payment processing to their website, the process can often be confusing and time-consuming. This document will endeavour to answer the most frequently asked questions received regarding payment processing over the Internet. These include:

Before you can begin the application process, there are several standards that all credit card processors have set. Follow this checklist and you will save yourself a significant amount of time, and aggravation.

'Free' Accounts or Merchant Accounts?

Anyone who does business online (and actually takes money from other people) must, at some point, bite the bullet and choose a credit card processing company - this can be quite an expensive decision.

There are effectively two different ways of going about this; you can either go for the free accounts or the specific merchant accounts.

But what is there to distinguish the two? After all they both allow you to accept a payment from a credit card holder right?