What is a Merchant Account?
A Merchant Account is a highly productive means to a more profitable end. It allows you to accept credit cards and other forms of payment so customers can pay in the way they want and you can increase sales and revenue. You have to establish a merchant account with Beyond Transaction or another payment processor to make it happen. The arrangement is in fact a line of credit and not a bank account. Under the contract, the acquiring bank (Beyond Transaction) exchanges funds with the issuing banks on your behalf and we pay you for the net balance of your daily payment card activity.
There are two main types of merchant accounts: Retail & MOTO.
Retail Merchant Accounts
Retail accounts encompass in-store processing where the customer is present and there is usually a physical processing terminal where customers swipe a card. This kind of account usually offers the lowest transaction fee, though there can be a number of restrictive rules. At Beyond Transaction, we happily offer this kind of account to businesses that include (but are not limited to):
- The apparel industry
- Salon
- Restaurant
- Gas stations and convenience stores
- And much more
MOTO Accounts and Online Purchasing
This term stands for Mail Order Telephone Order and Online shopping through the Internet. MOTO accounts are used when credit/debit and other cards cannot be physically swiped. Instead, these transactions are processed through:
- Virtual terminals
This is an online version of a credit card machine—you use a password to log into
a specific Website, which gives you access to an interface that looks like a credit card machine. You key in the credit card number and the transaction is processed. With our help, it’s easy to turn any PC into a point-of-sale (POS) device capable of processing transactions from almost any location, whether it’s brick and mortar or virtual.
- API (Application Programming Interface)
This is a custom commerce solution that Beyond Transaction builds for you that enables online purchasing for virtually any Website. It is best suited for merchants with enough volume of business to warrant the solution.
When you’re dealing with an online Website with a full shopping cart, you and your customers are dealing with 4 primary parts of the electronic purchasing process:
- User interface (Website, where customers can find products or services they like);
- A shopping cart/checkout tool, which walks customers through the purchase process;
- The gateway, which acts as an intermediary between your shopping cart and your merchant account to make sure the approval process proceeds quickly and accurately.
- The merchant account, which takes the information, authorizes payment, encrypts it, then uses the gateway to send information back to the Website where you are informed whether the purchase is approved or not.
Beyond Transaction deals with the last two aspects of the purchase process: The Gateway implementation and your merchant account. Again, after you contact us at 866-799-8975, we can have an in-depth discussion of what you need and need to know. Then, we can determine the best way to design your gateway and establish your account.