The following horror story comes from Travis Gomez, sales manager for CambridgeCommerce

Imagine you just launched a homerun direct response campaign. You’re getting a 4:1 MER (media efficiency ratio). You have thousands of units flying out of your fulfillment house. You’ve just spent a million dollars for more media and are getting ready to order more units. Everything’s running perfectly. STOP. Your local business bank, which you’ve banked with for years and gave you a great deal on your merchant account, just notified you that it placed a hold on that transaction because you have exceeded your merchant account limit and it is uncomfortable with your recent merchant processing activity. WHAT?!

The truth is not all credit card processors, and thus merchant accounts, are up to the task of meeting your business demands.

8 Questions For Your Merchant Account Processor

Everytime you’ve wanted to work with a bank, they grill you about every imaginable detail in the form of applications. It stands to reason that if the bank wants to do business with you, that you sould get to return the favor .

1. What Are The Requirements For Opening An Account?

Typically the merchant will want you to have your EID number, a web site, and will do a credit check against your business.

2. What Documentation Will You Need To Provide?

The required documentation for obtaining a merchant account is left completely to the discression of the Bank. Some examples would be a copy of your credit report and FICO score, proof of domain name registration, and a copy of your business license. If your business doesn’t have it’s own credit established, it is possible (although no recommended) to utilize the business owners personal credit report.

3. How Long Does it Take For Approval

Approval should take no more than 5 business days, and preferably should take 48 – 72 hours. If the bank takes longer than this to approve your account, imagine what your interaction with customer service are going to be like when you have a problem.

4. If You’re Using A Bank, How Much Experience Do They Have Servicing Merchant Accounts?

Remember, you are interviewing the bank for the purpose of giving them your business. I would ask them the following four questions:

1. How long has the bank been servicing merchant accounts
2. How many merchant accounts does the bank handle
3. Name some of their biggest accounts
4. Here’s the best one… Ask them what differentiates their merchant account services from other banks.

5. Do They Require You To Have a Website

Believe it or not, some providers require your business to have a website, while others will approve your account without a website, but till leave your account inactive until you get a website.

6. What Are The Costs For Opening The Account

These costs differ from provider to provider. It is always important to inquire about all the relevant costs that are being levied by the provider in order to open your new account.

7. What are the Processing and Monthly Fees

This tip is The Most Powerful bit of information you can use to choose the best merchant account. Simply ask the representative to verbally address all of the fees associated with the account. This means all processesing, maintanence, monthly, and "fine print" fees. Write these down, and compare the feed schedules to at least two other merchant account processors. The most reputable processors will happily disclose all of their fees

8. How Do Their Plans Adjust To Growing Business?

Don’t let what happened to Travis happen to your business. Present your growth estimates and ask the bank how their services will be able to expand and adapt to your growing business. I would recommend using Travis’s story and asking them what assurances they can give you that this will not happen to your business.

A Reputable Merchant Account Provider

My favorite merchant services provide is Merchant Express. Merchant Express offers no application fee merchant accounts for store fronts (retail point of sale), internet, and mobile (phone) businesses.

Personally, I don’t like establishing business relationships over the internet, so I called Merchant Express directly. I spoke with a nice sales woman named Sharon, who talked me through the process.

I was amazed at the quality of the overall package, including the wide array of processing options, included options, and overall price structure.

They offered me a 30 day risk free trial for their internet merchant account, which setup and used on my personal training and nutrition website. As a side note, integrating the payment processor into my website was a snap!

Benefits and Details

First of all, they gave me a free Authorize.Net account, for which most processors charge a couple hundred dollars. You need an Authorize.Net account because they are the number one payment gateway available on the market, and the software is pretty much pre-integrated with every shopping cart. 

Being the dilligent investigator that I am, I asked Sharon to disclose all of the fees including setup, processing, and monthly services fees. The monthly service fee is a very competative $9.95 a month; however, where Merchant Express really saves you money is in the transaction fee (known as a batch fee). Most processors charge $0.35 per transaction, where as Merchant Express charges $0.24 per transaction, a savings of 32%

The entire feed schedule is available on their website, so if you’re interested heres the link: Merchant Express Internet Account Fee Schedule

Amazingly Fast Approval

As I stated earlier, the typical time to get approval on a merchant account is about 5 business days. Merchant Express had me approved in 24 hours.

Quickbooks Pro Integration

Many small business owners such as myself use Quickbooks Pro to manage their business finances and accounts. One of the key selling points for me was the ability to integrate all of the credit transactions with Quickbooks Pro, and to be able to view order information and transaction details

Top Notch Custom Support

From working through my application, to integrating into my website, Sharon and the technical support staff were amazingly helpful and responsive. I had my shopping cart up and running with over 19 proudcts in just 1 day.

I hope utilizing these questions, as well as putting in your due dilligence connects you with a merchant account that meets your business needs. If you have any questions or comments, I encourage you to post them below!

-Steve

Technorati Tags: internet merchant account, merchant account, Merchant Accounts, merchant express