Merchant Account Charges

Discount rate and monthly fees - are probably the most important points to consider when choosing a merchant account.

Check what additional costs there may be. Some merchant account providers charge you extra for the use of their payment gateway, others will include it. Some will charge a monthly statement fee, others won't.
Monthly fees must be paid even if you don't make a single sale, but as business grows, a merchant account with monthly fees but a very low discount rate will usually mean you take home far more profit at the end of the month.

Most proper merchant accounts will charge a monthly fee for upkeep of your account, technical support, shopping cart and payment gateway fees etc. This is normal and nothing to worry about. But you should get the maximum service inputs for your charges. Third party processors seldom charge any monthly fee. They make their money with higher discount rate fees.

The definition of chargeback is the situation in which a customers' credit card is charged, and then the customer claims not to have received their product. Chargebacks are an unpleasant but commonplace situation when trading on the Internet. If you operate carefully you shouldn't encounter too many but high-fraud businesses like online casinos can suffer severely.

Always try avoiding a High Risk Merchant Account. There are many merchant account service providers around and you need to settle for the best one. The underlying principle is not to settle for less than what you need and not to allow service providers to give you more than you want. This will help you pick the most efficient service at a reasonable price.