Selling Electronic Goods: No Merchant Account

An independent comparison of payment service providers: an illustration of our e-book resources.

Selling Electronic Goods: No Merchant Account

If you don't have an online merchant account, and your level of business doesn't justify getting one, then a third-party payment service provider may be the answer to taking credit cards online.

Below are the rates applying to US merchants selling electronic goods (i.e. software, commercial pages, subscriptions) by realtime credit card processing. Rates for non-US merchants may be a little different: check on the payment provider sites.

Other services (telephone billing or online checks) are commonly available. Rates can change without notice, and may also depend on the size, location and nature of your business. You'll do well to shop around before before finalizing any deal, therefore, and to scrutinize the agreement for hidden extras like monthly statements, wire transfers and chargebacks. Most providers will also hold back a percentage of receipts to cover chargebacks, some for long periods.

The table below is not definitive, but you'll understand the businesses and their customers better by visiting the sites and emailing with specific queries. Remember to check what the credit cards are actually handled. There are sometimes restrictions by country, and individual cards vary in popularity from country to country, of course, with some countries hardly using credit cards at all.

	PSP	arrange fee	setup fee	monthly fees	transaction fees (from)		transaction fees (to)		minimum monthly turnover	charge range	charge- back	extra fees	notes
	website	US $	US $	US $	US cents	%	US cents	%	US $/month	$ - $	US $	see key	see key
1	site*	0	0	0	-	14.5	-	13.5	none	2.95-99.99	inquire	H	A H
2	site	0	30-199	0	-	13.9	-	13.9	none	a	inquire	-	A C
3	site *	0	0	20	30	2.49	30	1.99	none	-	inquire	-	H1 T U W X
4	site	0	0	0	-	15.95	-	inquire	-	1.95-60	inquire	H1	D T X
5	site	0	0	0	-	15.0	-	11.5	none	2.95-100	$15	-	N T X
6	site	0	inquire	-	-	10.0	inquire	inquire	-	inquire	inquire	-	-
7	site	0	0	0	500	1.25	500	5.0	none	c	$5	-	C H
8	site*	0	0	-	-	15.0	-	10.0	-	inquire	inquire	-	H
9	site	0	0	0	-	19.0	-	5.0	-	2.95-80	25-250	-	A D
10	site	25-50	15-700	0	-	11.9	-	5.9	various	-	inquire	see site	-
11	site	-	75-500	d	-	8.0	-	5.0	d	-	inquire	-	T
12	site	0	0	0	250	4.0	250	4.0	-	-	inquire	-	A C
13	site	0	200 -490	b	-	15.0	-	1.0	b	-	$4	-	-
14	site	0	0	0	-	14.5	-	13.5	none	-	inquire	-	D
15	site	0	0	0	300	-	-	10.0	-	e	none	-	A C X
16	site	0	35	0	35	3.5	35	3.5	-	-	$15	RF	X
17	site	0	0	0	-	20.0	-	20.0	-	-	-	-	C SW
18	site	0	0	0	295	5.0	-	14.9	-	-	-	-	SW
19	site	0	0	0	-	15.0	-	13.5	-	-	inquire	-	T X P
20	site	0	0	0	-	20.0	300	4.0	-	-	inquire	-	C SW
21	site *	0	399	50 f	40	5.25	40	3.25	-	-	inquire	R	-
	Key
	minumum monthly charge/ charge range	a=$3 min transaction fee, b= not less than $99/month, c=$2.50 min transaction fee, d=£10 minimum monthly charge, e=300 cents transaction charge applies to products under $30, otherwise 10%, f=for 3 currencies; $75 per additional currency,
	Extras	H=holdback, H1=holdback of 5-10%,
	Notes	A=affiliates scheme, C=will provide registration codes to s/w customers, D=specializes in but not limited to adult sites, H=hosting service available, H1=available only as a hosting service at $19.95/month, I=customer installs s/w, N=no gambling or transactions subject to cancellation, N1=no adult sites, P=per minute billing, R=$5 remittance fee for any currency, RF=$10 return fee on electronic , S1=$10 monthly statement fee, SW=software sales only, T= telephone billing, U=US businesses only, W=wide range of extra services, X=online s.

 

Please note that this is a 'demo' page only: you'll need our e-book to get proper links for the sites listed.

 

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