One of the easiest and most popular ways to accepting online payments is by using a third-party merchant account. This is an ideal account for small to medium sized companies that wish to look larger by accepting credit cards without the need of having your own merchant bank account, instead you use the third-parties.
There are many third-party merchant providers around but the more well known companies are:
2CheckOut
Overview
Cost: $50 one-time setup - $0.45 per Transaction and 5.5% of Transaction Amount
Provides online shopping cart and highly brandable ordering pages
Payments are sent every month by cheque
Slow support and customer service options such as a toll-free 1-800
Paysystems
Overview
Cost: $50 one-time setup - $1.00 per Transaction and 3.95% of Transaction Amount OR $0.35 per Transaction and 5.5% of Transaction Amount
Provides online shopping cart and logo only brandable ordering pages
Payments are sent every week by cheque
Quick support and customer service options such as a toll-free 1-800 number and live chat
Paypal
Overview
Cost: Free setup - Receive Funds: 2.2% + $0.30 USD to 2.9% + $0.30 USD
Provides online shopping cart and logo only brandable ordering pages
Payments must be transferred to your bank account
Low end support and customer service options, email support only
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