Once and for all what is the advantage and disadvantages of your own merchant account
 

Once and for all what is the advantages and disadvantages of having your own merchant account compared to going with a 3rd party like Jettis or Epoch?

Also if you go with a CCBILL lets say, CCBILL will do a certain amount of scrubbing. If you have your own merchant account, can you not do any scrubbing? Or how does that work?

lower fees, definately.

i'd be interested to hear this too. i'm applying for my own merchant account right now. but not for higher-risk charges.

Bumperoo

The way I understand it...

It used to be really easy to get setup with 3rd party (Ibill/Ccbill).
Visa then made you register and basically get approved and pay a nice fee $750. Since that point it pretty much was the same work to get approved with them as to get a merchant account.

The only reason now to run through them is because you have really bad credit. Why pay 12-15% when you can pay 5-7%?
Granted now to get a merchant account it requires you to do 100k a month so that pretty much eliminates the small guys from getting one for a paysite.

If you sell merchandise you are a fool to not have a merchant account.

keeps costs down

Should ask your brother Jon? lol

:321GFY

Lower fees seem to be the only difference these days! you can still be placed on the TMF/match even going through a third party biller!:feels-hot

Merchant Account:
More control - Like you say rather or not to give a refund. Your rules. You control "your" customers info.
Lower Fees

3rd Party Biller:
Someone else takes care of your customers - Could be good or bad. Depends on who answers the phone and how many customers you have.

Otherwise there isn't really a difference anymore. Depends on which gateway service you go with. Like Netbilling and PlugNPay have membership management and stores already made to use.

You cann't get a high-risk merchant account for adult services (you can still get one for adult goods) unless you can bring in some good money through that merchant account (as someone else already mentioned).

lol

You have a lot more risk with your own merchant account. In most cases you have to personally guarantee the money when you are doing very large sums in adult entertainment or other high risk categories.

You have complete control. Sometimes that can be a lot of work.

I've had both and the first time was early on when the Net first started and it was a total fiasco beyond belief. There were so many software glitches, connectivity problems, dealing with the DAK's when you handle your own customer service, it was a constant headache dealing with it all.

If you grow fast into significant volume be prepared to put your real estate or other assets on the line when you ask for a limit increase.

Advantages way lower fees.
Diadvantages, they dont manage your members.

Merchant account:
- liquidity: most merchant accounts clear the funds to your bank in 48 hrs.
- you can control the scrub: however, this can come back and bite you in the ass. The 1% Visa rule is still in effect, and a couple days of a very loose scrub can get you (in the next month when the users' bill comes due again)



3rd Party:
- Implementation: from my experience, the third party guys have most of the functionality already set up to do what you'd like; upsells, xsells, per minute, etc.
- Customer service: although netbilling does a good job (through our own merchant account), the billing support aspect has seemed to be better with epoch/ccbill/ibill/jettis.

Thank you. If I understand the other replys, you can only get a merchant account if you are doing $100,000 a month in sales? Is this correct?

Thank you. If I understand the other replys, you can only get a merchant account if you are doing $100,000 a month in sales? Is this correct?

Advantages of having your own merchant account...

No middle-men to deal with. This way you can deal with your chargebacks with your bank.
Quick payment. Money is usually there within 2 or 3 days.
Customer service. If you have a problem with someone you can talk to them face to face, and they will get your point.
Do whatever the hell you want, how you want. No payment gateways or other bullshit.

pretty much, in the US at least

Not necassarily...e.g. cardservices will accept you at a lot less, but I've heard really mixed things about them.

I think realistically $100k+ is when you really need to start thinking about securing some merchant accounts...and at this level, the disclosure and guarantees become much more onerous (as mentioned above by KRL)

Greg, are you in Florida?

Give me a call

(see sig)

My question is how solid are these 3rd party billers. Thats my main concern when it comes to billing. I'm happy to pay 15% if I know they are solid and aren't going anywhere but there is a lot of info flying around that some of the big 3 processors won't be around in a year.

And getting your own merchant account seems to be getting harder and harder. $100,000 + isn't exactly small time.

I'm very interested in setting up merchant accounts as my business model keeps our chargebacks at 0.1-0.2 percent just fine. No trials etc so stuff all chargebacks. But i'm very interested to here from anyone who can set us up with a merchant account. We are doing good volume but its not over $100k a month yet. Is anyone out there handle setting people up with other forgien merchant accounts??

I can help you if you are even just close to 100k per month, with offshore merchant accounts. Get in touch with me however you'd like. I answer my cell pretty much 24/7
(The "I have no life" syndrome) :-)

You do not need to process 100K per month for a merchant account. You can acquire tangible merchant accounts, membership merchant accounts, master merchant accounts, there are quit a few different accounts to pick from base on what you would like to acheive.

Please contact me if you would like help in acquire a merchant account.

[email protected] or call me @ 517-540-9547
Sean