Stop using paypal-control your own money with a merchant account

Let me start out by saying that I used to make close to 3000 a week selling "Chinese sneakers" on Ebay. This would have never been possible if I did no sell using a merchant account.

I see so many posts on here and other forums where people are complaining about there money frozen in Paypal or "how can I bypass this 21 day hold BS?" The answer is simple, get yourself a merchant account! I am starting this thread with the intention of answering any and all ?s about merchant accounts. There is no reason why anyone should be using a PP account to sell on Ebay. THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO ADVANTAGE TO USING PP OVER A MERCHANT ACCOUNT, not to mention PP will usually end up getting you suspended and keeping your money!

Back in the pre 11/07 days I would have 8 Ebay accounts running at once. If an account ever got bumped off because of VERO I would open a new account and be selling the next day!

Obviously things are a bit more difficult now as you are required to link your PP account and offer it as an accepted payment method. UNLESS...you have a merchant account that has been verified by ebay.

If your ebay account is registered under your real name, ther is no reason that you should not get a merchant account and use it instead of PP. All you need to do is fax in a statement and ebay will let you integrate your merchant account directly into their payflow. Even though the merchant accoutn will be integrated into their payflow-they will never have access to your money. Most merchant accounts automatically deposit your funds within 48 hours.

Now I know some of you are saying, well i have already been suspended by ebay numerous times. The answer for these people is simple-get an LLC, get a merchant account for the LLC, and then register an ebay acount using the LLC name. You can get file your LLC paper sonline in most states and usually will be set up within the week.

Being approved for a merchant account is MUCH easier than most people believe. Even if you are selling questionable products, there are tons of little tricks you can use to get a approved by these guys.

The merchant services industry is EXTREMELY competitive and unless you have some serious judgements on your credit report or have had a merchant account terminated before, you will most likely be approved by somebody becasue there are so many companies fighting for your business.

I used to work for a merchant account provider so I know exactly what to say, and sometimes more importantly, what not to say on your merchant account applications. I will constantly monitor this thread to answer any and all questions my fellow BHW members my have about anything relating to merchant accounts. I can also point you in the right direction and ensure that you get the best possible rate. STOP GIVING PP YOUR MONEY GET A MERCHANT ACCOUNT!

Hey, great thread!

I was wondering if there are merchant account providers that will let me signup with my business (corporate) info only, without me providing additional personal details such as SSN, DL etc.

Also I recently got a merchant account through Paypal, it's called Website Payments Pro and it also comes with virtual terminal too and works under Business Paypal account. Is this is any better than regular Paypal account in terms of sudden 'freezing' of the funds and other Paypal crap?

can you suggest any merchant accounts?

akfirsttry said:

can you suggest any merchant accounts?

Click to expand...

I would also be interested in some recommended providers as well as fee comparison and qualifications.
Thanks

All merchant providers I have seen had huge start-up fees.
You had to pay a lot of money (often multiple thousand $) as "setup" cost.
And the fee for each transaction is also higher than paypals.

If you know a professional merchant service that can really compete (in terms of cost) with paypal I'd be very interested.

justone said:

All merchant providers I have seen had huge start-up fees.
You had to pay a lot of money (often multiple thousand $) as "setup" cost.
And the fee for each transaction is also higher than paypals.

If you know a professional merchant service that can really compete (in terms of cost) with paypal I'd be very interested.

Click to expand...

I agree with the above poster, a while back when I researched merchant accounts it turned out that all of them had higher fees than paypal....Has that changed lately?

On the contrary, most of the established merchant account providers like First Data and Authorize.net do not require huge upfront setup costs, only a small $30/month fee plus the processing fee.

What you have probably encountered are rip-off resellers who sometimes charge additional fees.

You can use this link to apply for a merchant account directly with FirstData, one of the top national merchant account providers.

Link: https://contact.firstdata.com/callback.htm

YES! I've been preaching this forever.

There are no "start-up" fees as somone said above.

around 2.2%(paypal is 3.0% i belive).

If anyone needs help setting one up or getting one give me a pm.

I help people get setup with Authorize.net and Merchant accounts. PM me for details I don't want to spam this with my links.

It's true that the cost for opening merchant accounts is really huge if you are looking for a stable and reliable service. Plus they profile online merchants as High Risk, Medium and Low Risk. I've been dealing with many payment processors for the past 4 years and I found that whoever is opening merchant account has to go through rigorous integration process. Some providers ask you to close the batch at the end of the day and some closes it automatically at certain time of the day. Tricky part is recurring transactions. Currently, most payment processors require merchants to be PCI compliant, which means no storage of CC numbers unless you keep only bin or one-way-hash.
Depending on your business and volume, I would recommend you to look for Merchant Solution Services. If your product is digital, I can hook you up with a Merchant Solution Provider that charges no fee if you sell your product for $40 or less. But they will add Download Protection Service for a small fee to the customer from where you can get 20% commission. PM me if you need any info on that.
If you're selling hard goods, I would strongly recommend Google Checkout so that you can have free advertising. Example: if you spend $10 in PPC, you'll get $100 worth of free processing.. plus you get a Google Badge when your ad is shown on search results. Their limitation is that the merchant needs to be in US and UK. You can use WP E-Commerce plugin where the Google Checkout module is integrated.. just put you merchant key and it will start processing.

Great post. Thanks to the OP.

If you have a need to accept credit cards using any telephone, pm me. I'll forward the info.

funkymonk said:

It's true that the cost for opening merchant accounts is really huge if you are looking for a stable and reliable service. Plus they profile online merchants as High Risk, Medium and Low Risk. I've been dealing with many payment processors for the past 4 years and I found that whoever is opening merchant account has to go through rigorous integration process. Some providers ask you to close the batch at the end of the day and some closes it automatically at certain time of the day. Tricky part is recurring transactions. Currently, most payment processors require merchants to be PCI compliant, which means no storage of CC numbers unless you keep only bin or one-way-hash.
Depending on your business and volume, I would recommend you to look for Merchant Solution Services. If your product is digital, I can hook you up with a Merchant Solution Provider that charges no fee if you sell your product for $40 or less. But they will add Download Protection Service for a small fee to the customer from where you can get 20% commission. PM me if you need any info on that.
If you're selling hard goods, I would strongly recommend Google Checkout so that you can have free advertising. Example: if you spend $10 in PPC, you'll get $100 worth of free processing.. plus you get a Google Badge when your ad is shown on search results. Their limitation is that the merchant needs to be in US and UK. You can use WP E-Commerce plugin where the Google Checkout module is integrated.. just put you merchant key and it will start processing.

Click to expand...

Hate to disagree..But only reason for startup cost(maybe its a "reserve") if you have bad credit.For most people though you wont have a reserve with PayPal..

You have any experince with GoogleCheckout, I got 1 chargeback and they shut my accoutn down:yield:

I'd love a list of low prices merchants that get the money to my bank in 3 days max (paypal's time) and lower than 2.9% fees.

Also, how do you integrate this with eBay? I've never heard of this. I know about sending the invoice with the link to the customer, but never about implementing it right there.

I would love to have a conversation with you. I've had a difficult time getting a merchant account. The reason is because it's on the free trial model (this model has come under a lot of hell because of the rebills and chargebacks) among other things.

If possible, please send me a PM with a MSN Messenger or AIM screen name so that I may add you

I used to be in that biz. Merchant accounts aren't hard to get set up, IF you just do a little homework, and have your biz set up properly. Doing a "moto" (mail order telephone order) account is a little more challenging than a brick and mortar based biz, but still not hard.

John Galt.

Sorry, I have been out all day and unable to update the thread. I will address each individual post below.

asprind said:

Hey, great thread!

I was wondering if there are merchant account providers that will let me signup with my business (corporate) info only, without me providing additional personal details such as SSN, DL etc.

Also I recently got a merchant account through Paypal, it's called Website Payments Pro and it also comes with virtual terminal too and works under Business Paypal account. Is this is any better than regular Paypal account in terms of sudden 'freezing' of the funds and other Paypal crap?

Click to expand...

All merchant accoutn require a personal guarantee. There is no way around this because a merchant account is essentially a low risk loan. The only exception to this would be very large corporate accounts.

The merchant account that PP provides you is a third-party merchant account. This means that paypal uses another processor to perform the actual transaction, they do not actually handle the processing. Because of this you are still subject to all of the same PP Bullsh*t that you would be with any other account. My advice to you would be to get a merchant account.

akfirsttry said:

can you suggest any merchant accounts?

Click to expand...

PM me.

Spdbmp said:

I would also be interested in some recommended providers as well as fee comparison and qualifications.
Thanks

Click to expand...

PM me.

justone said:

All merchant providers I have seen had huge start-up fees.
You had to pay a lot of money (often multiple thousand $) as "setup" cost.
And the fee for each transaction is also higher than paypals.

If you know a professional merchant service that can really compete (in terms of cost) with paypal I'd be very interested.

Click to expand...

Any merchant account provider asking for money upfront as a "setup fee" is trying to rip you off. The only reason any money is ever collected upfront would be if you are selling an EXTREMELY high risk item such as replicas or herbal diet pills.

If you have a merchant accoutn and you are gettin charged more per transaction than PP, then again, you are getting ripped off. The fee for accepting credit cards over the internet is a little above 2% but never higher than paypal.

I dont knwo of any professional merchant service that CAN NOT compete (in terms of cost and every other aspect) with paypal. PM me and I will point you in the right direction and make sure you get set up.

^^^ Co-Sign.

Third-party means PayPal acutally procceses closser to what merchant accounts charge( I imagine they get huge discount fees, maybe around 1.5% is actually what paypal is charged, which is why the boost it up to 3% to cover their cost and make money in the procces.

I seen some were you can get a merchant account, from cosxtco did not se the details, but I do not currently have any credit in the US got screed by the ex in the divorce any other way of getting a merchant account with out credit?
Regards
Suave