Accepting Credit Cards on your Website by Jack Freeman

Most of the online websites you see nowadays are selling their products, services or their Auctions are accepting Credit Cards, which is making eCommerce, a Multi Billion Dollar Industry. This Article will tell you how you can do the same and join the other millions of users selling online and accept Credit Card payments online.

More users trust their computers now and use their Credit Cards for online Shopping. Computer Security is becoming more powerful and most of the transactions go smoothly which is a trust bond between the Buyer and the merchant.

Choosing a Online Credit Card Service

There is a lot of Credit Card Scam online these days, websites claiming to be large companies, serving millions of customers. Do a Google search on the Credit Card company name and domain and see what results come up and what other people have to say about the company. People usually leave their comments about the companies in forums or their websites which is accessible to Google and other Search Engines. If you are still not sure about a company, do a WHOIS search of the company domain. And see if their profile looks real enough to be trusted, you can do WHOIS search for free on www.Whois.sc.

Before opening an Account in a Credit Card service, look at the company's rates. Some companies are good for Auctions, Some for Subscriptions. You have to count the transaction charges with your product price. If you are selling products online, or selling on eBay then look at the companies where you have to pay a low percent charge and your Buyer doesn't have to pay a lot, like: Paypal. Paypal doesn't charge your Buyers and has a very low charge for Premium or Business Accounts. Most of the Sellers Bidpay, A Western Union company which is trusted but is designed for online Auctions. Bidpay also has a very high charging rate for Buyers which might cause you to lose Customers. If you have a very large budget and have more customers , then 2Checkout is the best payment system which accepts Credit Cards without any charges but does not accept payments from Paypal Accounts which might be a problem for some of your customers. It's always a wise idea to provide 2 or 3 payment services for your Customers; this will increase your sales.

Service Availability

There are many companies which only accept customers from specific countries, so always look at the Availability of the service in your company and your currency, which could help you save money by exchanging currencies. Paypal accepts most of the countries which serve Credit Cards or have a branch of International Bank. There are also many Alternatives for countries not Accepted by paypal to Accept Paypal Services for a fee. You also have to look for the time it takes to withdraw your money to your Bank Account or Credit Card. paypal, Bidpay, and other American companies can transfer your money with in 3-5 days to any major country, but if you are in a country where it will take days to weeks to transfer your money, you should look for another Alternative.

Credit card Service Integration

Integrating the Credit Card Service to your websites saves time for your customers and it's good for many shopping cart softwares which can calculate all the details the customer needs, like the shipping costs, charges, taxes, etc.

If you are selling large amount of products online and know that most of your customers will use Credit Cards, then 2Checkout is a service for you, It is just like a Payment Service your Customers would use in their daily life with Credit Card Machines. There are a lot of free and commercial Shopping Cart and Payment Service softwares written for the 2checkout system in all PHP, ASP, PERL languages, like: OsCommerce.

If most of your Customers are using Paypal, then you Integrate paypal for your website using al ready made scripts or design one yourself. If you are going to use a script for paypal, make sure you can trust the Script Company and the script is reliable. paypal system is easy to hack if you are not using Encryption. It's recommended that you contact a Paypal IPN Expert before integrating the service to your website to make sure the system is safe and integrated properly.

Most of the Shopping cart softwares support many payment services like: paypal & 2Checkout and are able to integrate more payment services. OsCommerce is one of them; it has secure payment and service and is used by thousands of shopping companies all over the world.

Website Securing & Licensing

Licensing your website and securing your payment service is required if you are going to be promoting your Business. Most people who want to purchase online prefer trusted and secure websites. Getting a license for your website is becoming a lot easier now. Online Credit card services like: Paypal offers easy to use Account Verification services; you can be verified just by entering your credit card information and putting the paypal verified logo in your website.

If you are considering to invest in a Secure license for your website then Verisign has the Solution for you. VeriSign Licenses are also another way to show your visitors how secure your website is and they are considered to be the most secure and recommended websites available by internet websites and Gurus.

Jack Freeman, DolbyDesigns