How to Set Up a Merchant Account for Your Business: A Guide

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You might be thinking that this article is about becoming a merchant account provider. It’s not. BlueSnap experts will provide you with information on how to set up your own merchant account, as well as the pros and cons of various options available to you. We’ll also offer some advice for choosing an appropriate payment processing solution for your business needs.

The first thing you should understand is that a merchant account for small business has nothing to do with becoming a payment processing company. The two terms are often confused because they use similar language, but it’s important to make the distinction between the two things right from the start.

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A “merchant account service provider” refers to any institution or individual who can provide an ecommerce platform and facilitate transactions through various means of payments such as credit card authorization services, debit cards, PayPal , etc. In other words, if you want to be able-to accept credit cards on your website, then you will need to find a suitable provider/processor which have their own merchant accounts . This is not what this guide is about since we focusing here on how individuals and small businesses can go about setting up their own merchant accounts.

What is a Merchant Account?

A merchant account is an arrangement between a business and one of the credit card companies that allows them to accept the cards as payment for goods or services, usually through point-of-sale terminals or online transactions . The company will process all charges from those customers at a later date when they make every sale, which means if you have your own merchant account then you don’t need to pay immediately after making each transaction. Instead, it’s paid by the end of every billing cycle (usually monthly). In this way, merchants are able to use “open” lines of credit in order to cover their daily requirements instead of having only enough cash on hand.