Several years ago, businesses only took payments from customers in the form of cash or a check. Some companies wouldn’t even take checks in the fear that they may not go through due to the customers not having enough funds available. Now, technology has changed making it possible for customers to take other forms of payments in order for them to go through faster. They are guaranteed the funds immediately with the use of a merchant account.
A merchant account is used for businesses to accept credit cards. Credit cards can be given to the customers in many forms. A customer may receive an unsecured credit card, a secured credit card, pre-paid cards, or even a debit card linked to their checking account. All of the cards will have major credit card logos on them. Those logos can include Visa, MasterCard, Discover, or American Express.
Businesses do not have to accept all major credit cards. They can only accept the ones that they are willing to pay fees for. Each type of major credit card will have a fee that is charged to the business each time they run a transaction. The fee will be based on the merchant account they choose to go with. They must look at the fine print of the merchant account agreement in order to know what the fees are going to be. Usually, when a credit card is charged, the fee will be a set amount plus a percentage of the transaction amount that is being processed.
Businesses will be open to more opportunities to sell their services or products online. This will open them up to more potential sales, and they can sell in more areas besides the location they are located at. As soon as the customer submits their payment information, they will be able to know if their payment will be accepted or denied in a matter of seconds. If the payment is declined, the customer will have to find another form of payment in order to make the transaction. This helps businesses by ensuring that they will receive all funds that are due to them.
Credit card payments can be taken online, at the location, or even on-the-go for businesses that do work all over. Businesses such as towing companies, food trucks, door-to-door salesman, and many others will be able to take credit card payments with a device hooked-up to their smartphone. This will help expand their business and keep the employees from having to carry around large amounts of cash.