New businesses may also be required to pay a one-time setup fee to process your Application. The Merchant Account only enables you to process credit card transactions. You will also need a vehicle to move the customer's credit card information to the processor. This vehicle might be a telephone, a credit card terminal or a virtual terminal integrated with your web site. This fee is typically retained from every transaction to cover the related costs of processing.
Discount rates can be deceptive.
It's an extremely complicated industry which makes it easy for companies' advertised rates to be deceptive. Finally, rates are also determined by the type of industry. Card-swiped sales require a signature at the time of sale. Telephone sales are charged a higher rate because of the increased risk of credit card fraud. It is important to know your percentage of non-swipe transactions as this has a direct bearing on the type account you are set up on.