Anyone have a good merchant processing company? I made a complete arse of myself with a potential client today because I haven't set up credit card processing yet. (It was HUGE potential client to. DANGIT!) 
I was looking at paypal, but $30 a month plus 3 (I think it was three) percent of each transaction kind of seemed steep to me.
When you sign up with a company make sure they are a direct depositer. That means they actually handle the transaction. Some companies are middlemen. They take the order process it then hand it off to another "direct" processor. It takes at a max three days for my deposits to get to my account. When you get your machine. Read the contract carefully. We ended up renting ours. Starting a new business, not sure about survival, we didn't want to buy one. Well it seems we have a lifetime contract Try to hold out, and buy one, in the long run it's better.
Mike
I signed up with Heartland - haven't used it yet, but they were the most upfront about pricing. Some processors will quote you a VERY low per transaction fee, but then they'll hit you with a high interchange percentage. Make sure you do the math on an average ticket to figure out who is really giving you the best deal.
It might also be good to consider a long-term agreement. If you lock in your rates, you won't get surprised after the first year with a hefty increase.
Good luck!
I was looking at paypal, but $30 a month plus 3 (I think it was three) percent of each transaction kind of seemed steep to me.
i use paypal and there is no monthly fee. its just the 3% transaction fee, which is actually quite comparable to what i found when looking around. i looked at several other places and they all wanted monthly fees around $20.00 plus about a 2% transaction fee. i don't receive credit card payments enough to make 1% worth while. plus there were contracts, set up for terminals etc. and if i didn't have a terminal i could use my computer, but because theres no card swipe the transaction fee was higher, and it would have been the same % that paypal uses!
so i use paypal, and some months i pay $5 and some months i pay $40. but either way it sure beats a contract, terminal set up fees, monthly fees and still having a transaction fee.
a friend of mine started a business quite a few years back selling video games. he got a credit card machine, and to sign a three year contract. he was out of business in 6 months, but still had to pay that darn credit card machine.
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