In order for you to take credit, debit cards, or checks online you will need to establish a merchant account. While guiding many through the process we have found that Cardservice International is an industry leader in cutting edge, on-line processing. They establish everything that you will need to get your e-business going. 

One reason why this process may be confusing to some people is because of the wide range of services, and price levels offered by different companies. Usually if the price is so low it's hard to believe, don't believe it. Many companies offer low initial fees, then take large percentages of your money. A reasonable discount rate is anywhere from 2.35% to 3.75%, this depends on the types of cards you will take. We recommend you accept Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express. These are widely used in that order. You will also need a gateway, or the software that will allow running transactions from your website. There are two ways this is done:

Live - Transaction is run and approved in real time.
Virtual - Transactions are run later before shipping.

Below are the current costs and fees to a prospective merchant.

Please be advised there is a $30,000 volume MAXIMUM per month at start-up.

Getting started is simple with Cardservice's auto approval process, merchant number in 24 hours! Fully enabled Linkpoint Processing site in just 48 hours!

One more note on getting a merchant account, you need to have fair credit personally in order to qualify. We have seen many clients who have applied and have been turned down. To get started fill out the online application at the Cardservice site, which uses SSL 128 bit encryption for security. Let them know that Tinker Graphics is guiding you through the process, many times they will call us to discuss your project before approval.