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Consumers still prefer the security of using their credit card over the phone or with a mail-in order form. The growth of online transactions has had its advantages, but with advancement in technology has come advanced criminal scams. Some people still feel more secure with their transactions on mail order merchant services. These are tested payment options that would open avenues for a vast amount of business to grow.

No payment solution can claim to offer a 100% error free transaction network as accepting credit cards by phone or mail has its pitfalls. Here are some tips to help you get the most out of your merchant account:-

Know the charges associated with the account –

There are generally four different kinds of charges that vary for each merchant account.

  1. Fixed charges.
  2. The regular charges which are usually monthly and sometimes annual.
  3. Fees based on sales come in the form of a small percentage of the amount of each transaction.
  4. Fixed cost per transaction.

A one-time fee for such things as opening/closing/changing a merchant account, application fees, or cancellation fees can also be levied on your mail order merchant account. In addition, there are fees for special circumstances such as charge backs, or the use of debit cards or other special cards.

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Also ask for a discount rate which is the lowest possible rate that merchants are charged to accept credit cards. When there is a higher risk of nonpayment a higher rate will be charged. Finally, ask if there are cancellation fees. Certain merchant account providers ask for a lock in period of their mail order merchant services.

PC vs. Terminal

In a mail or telephone order setting, you often have more choices regarding how to process credit cards than in a regular retail environment. A PC gives you a lot of extra power to seamlessly link your credit card processing to spreadsheets or other programs to manage other aspects of the business. On the downside, a PC can take longer than a credit card terminal, and they tend to crash more often.

Set up your merchant account long before you need it –

The last thing you’d want is to be unable to process the credit card payments because your merchant account and credit card terminal aren’t fully functional yet.

Most importantly, choose the right bank for your merchant account.