Originally Posted by fuzebox

Getting your own merchant account will save you some points on the rate, and give you more control over stuff like your join form and scrubs... Keep in mind though you have to do your own affiliate payouts, and do your own member/billing support (or use a support service). Netbilling will handle this for you as well, but depending on what level you're at volume wise, the savings may not be that high. If you're paying 12% with ccbill now, and get a merchant account at 6%, by the time you factor in the additional netbilling percentage and the support costs, you may only be saving 1-2%, while having to deal with running your own payouts.

I still think a merchant account is the best way to go, but it's not for everyone