merchant account
 

hi. I want to sell adult dvd's on my website but I'm confused by what I need to do to get this going. Do I need all 3 of these things -shopping cart, merchant account, and payment processor? Is there a plan that combines all three or that makes setting this stuff up easy for a new business? I've called a couple of merchant account providers and even though their websites say easy integration and shopping cart included it turns out that usually the shopping cart isn't provided and integration is only easy if you already know how to do it. I don't, and since my site is very small I don't have a tech person, either. Also, rates for adult products will be listed at 2-4% but when I call to talk to a sales rep they will quote me 8-10% plus a lot of fees that aren't mentioned on their websites so I'm a little worried I'm going to end up paying out a lot more than I expected. Any advice or suggestions for providers would really be appreciated.

Thanks :)

If you want to be serious and not get jerked around you need to go to a bank and request a merchant account. This wil cost a little startup dough though but nothing overwhelming.

Key bank asks for something like $500 in the account and $25 a month plus a $150 account activation fee. In my opinion though they are probably the best to go through because they are part of the NOVA network which means that you can process orders from pretty much any country using almost any form (credit, checks online).

They have software (php, perl etc) api's that will allow you to process orders from your site. Your server will also need to have SSL though in order to guarantee customer safetey. SSL itself is easy to setup but if you want to be professional you need a certificate from a trusted provider which will cost another $100+ depending on who you buy from.

You will most likely need a tech person no matter who you get a merchant account through. I am available for freelance hire though and my rates are reasonable :)

The bottom line here is though that you need to go to a bank, any bank, shop around and find the best deal that suits your business model.