Can anyone recommend a good marchant account provider?

[Jan Ferrante]

Hi Carlos, I also accept email transfer which is convenient for anyone who banks online, sometimes they need to figure out how to do it but it's not that hard and sometimes even direct deposit. I'm not 100% sure how secure that is since a person needs your banking info, obviously you wouldn't want to give out the info on your main account.

The only thing is, especially if you are dealing with bigger numbers, that they may need to use credit if they don't have the cash flow to pay you by check.

And of course there is the hassle of you keeping them straight with no electronic record until you deposit, even then you don't have record by name (I think we can get that at our bank but it costs about $1.00 per check, cheaper than paypal I suppose), non payment or bounced checks.

I do accept checks as well, on th upside as you've mentioned, it's cheaper, but on the downside it is a lot more work and even as we speak I'm waiting for a no show from a regular customer (her mother was supposed to send it because she's out of country - no check, no reply. It's an awkward situation)

As a rule I don't ship until the check has cleared having learned my lesson a time or two, it's a good policy if you are going that route - money up front or you will likely have 'no payment' costs.

[Jan Ferrante]

And there is the international thing too, you may be limiting yourself and some people may not have the trust factor if you only accept checks.

[carlos123]

You know I thought check acceptance online would be the answer for me but maybe not.

The one I checked on (ha, ha...get it? Checked on.) on costs $149.00 up front cost to start receiving checks online.

There may be others that are much cheaper. I'll keep looking.

What I am resorting to is finding out where the two banks I have accounts at have branches. Clients can just walk into branches and make deposits directly into my accounts if they really want to use my services.

So I am going to my bank branch locators, finding out where they have branches, and focusing my efforts to get new clients there in addition to San Diego (where I live).

I'm even finding some payment processors used in Europe and elsewhere. There's some potential there too. Still checking some out.

The U.S. is not the only country in the world that uses or has payment processors.

I am definitely leaning in the direction of accepting online checks...e-checks I think they are called. Less expensive and much less hassle for me as a merchant of services.

Anyway...thanks for the input you all.

Carlos

[deniseoberry]

Carlos -- I know you probably don't want to hear this, but you can accept echecks through PayPal too.

[carlos123]

Thanks for the heads up Denise. I didn't know that.

Now if only I could find a company like PayPal that wasn't...well...you know...PayPal LOL.

Carlos