Many Americans are realizing life-long dreams of being their own bosses by opening their own small businesses. Small businesses are thriving in places like Los Angeles, New York, and Miami.
If you’ve been considering opening your own small business for a while, you should be prepared to do a lot of research about start-up costs and opening your own merchant account. Deciding who will help you with your merchant account and payment processing is one of the most important steps when opening your own business.
Accepting credit cards is a necessity for small businesses because some customers never carry cash. But there can be a lot of fees involved with having a merchant account and accepting credit or debit cards for payment.
Some of the fees involved with a merchant account can include:
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Annual Fee
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Monthly Minimum Fee
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Authorization Fee
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Transaction Fee
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Statement Fee
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Batch fee
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Customer Service Fee
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Early Termination Fee
This long list of possible fees is very intimidating for new business owners. Dealing with all of these fees at one time can feel very discouraging. However, there are some companies who can offer merchant accounts and payment processing services who do not charge an unreasonable amount of fees.
Your local bank isn’t the only business who can create a merchant account for you. You can also open a merchant account with and independent sales organization or a payment processor. Some of these companies offer credit card terminals and inexpensive payment processing in order to compete with banks.
If you’re opening your first merchant account for your small business, collect information from your local bank and compare it to companies who specialize in payment processing and merchant accounts. You might find that the companies which specialize in helping people with merchant accounts will charge fewer and less expensive fees.
