MERCHANT ACCOUNTS - Credit Card Processing and Payment Gateways.

Merchant Accounts: Payment Gateway

What is a payment gateway and how does it work with my merchant account?

A payment gateway is the connection between your website and your bank's credit card processor. Unfortunately, it is possible to select an inappropriate gateway for your merchant account and credit card processing.  When choosing a gateway, it is important to consider speed, costs and how it works.  It is also important to make sure that your payment gateway is reliable.  

Determine all the monthly and transaction fees associated with the gateway prior to making your selection.  The costs that are not seen are guests that get disturbed over additional time at check-in because you are forced to use a manual process when the gateway is down. Guests have choices and many will choose an alternative if their “guest experience” is burdensome. 

When looking at your current gateway or any gateway that you are considering, here are a number of questions that you should get substantiated answers to: 

1. Is the gateway CISP, SDP, etc. certified? Are they listed on Visa's list of companies that have been independently audited to comply with the 12 domains of the Visa Cardholder Information Security Program. Ask the gateway provider to prove their certification. 

2. Is the gateway registered with the various card associations?  

3. Does the gateway have redundant data centers? One goes down, the other takes over. 

4. If their connectivity is over the Internet, do they have multiple Internet carriers? While the Internet is becoming more and more stable, Internet carriers still can go down. 

5. Is your data regularly backed up by the gateway and is your data mined in two separate locations? 

6. Does the gateway have a policy of being up 24/7?

Merchant Accounts that utilize Payment Gateways need to consider all the monthly costs and transactional costs!

Compare and review multiple merchant accounts side-by-side to insure that your business has the lowest credit card processing costs available. Each merchant account provider is not able to see what the other merchant service providers are offering, so they are truly competing for merchant accounts competitively. There is no need to login and wait for offers. We will automatically email you each time you receive an offer. Once you get the email you can simply login, view merchant account offer details and compare online. No phone calls from commission based salespeople.

CardBridge is FREE and you have NO OBLIGATION to accept any offer. Why would you go anywhere else to compare, review and acquire on merchant accounts, anywhere?

Accept Credit Cards at your business today!