Online Payments / Merchant Account - Paypal

Posted on September 16, 2008
Filed Under Online Payments |

When doing business online, you need a way to accept payments for your product or services. You may also need or want to accept Debit Cards and Credit Cards. One way to enable you to do this is to get a Merchant account from a bank. This is not easy to do and is rather expensive. I have gone through the process of getting a merchant account for my DVD store. It was expensive to setup and you have to pay a monthly processing fee. If you are a small business there is an easier way. There is an online payment system that incorporates a merchant account, so you do not need a gateway and it’s very easy to use and you can accept credit cards, debit cards and cash from the users account. You get paid instantly from credit cards and debit cards. eChecks take a few days to clear. And it’s EASY.

Paypal is the easiest feature packed online payment processor available. I have used Paypal for 7 or 8 years without complete satisfaction. Paypal enables anyone to either make a payment to anyone with a Paypal account or accept a payment from anyone, even if they do not have a Paypal account. You can use Paypal to process payments from eBay auctions too. Paypal is actually integrated into eBay auctions via a Pay Now button. It works really well.The buyer pays during the checkout process.

You can use Paypal to accept payments for any products or services except adult, firearms, tobacco and a few other categories. Check the TOS before selecting Paypal. The really nice part is the fact that the payments go directly into your Paypal account. There are processing fees but they are reasonable, around 1.9% - 4.9% plus a $0.30 transaction fee depending on the accout type. You only pay the processing fees when you accept or receive payments. I think it’s worth the fee. Your sales will increase if you accept credit cards.

Paypal is really flexible also. Here’s a neat feature that I used and loved. You can email a payment request or invoice to anyone with an email address. So if you worked on someone’s website, you can email the invoice to them and get paid asap. It’s that easy. This payment processor works internationally as well. So Paypal enables you to do business globally. I have sold products in Turkey, UK, Spain, Australia, France and Ireland. All of these sales were paid via Paypal.

Paypal can open the doors to anyone wanting to sell online. See if Paypal can help you with your online business.