What is a Merchant Account and why do I need one?

Answer by:  Frédérique Taillefer, Aplus.Net Knowledge Base Support

A Merchant Account is a bank account established with a Merchant Account Provider to enable you to process credit card transactions online. All merchants need a Merchant Account to be able to accept and process credit card transactions. Your bank or Merchant Account Provider will process the credit cards through their credit card processor and deposit the money into your merchant account. There are fees associated with processing credit cards. First, there are Merchant Account setup fees, and there are also Discount Rates and per Transaction fees. Please contact your Merchant Account Provider for more information on their rates and fees.

Aplus.Net is in direct contact with CardService International, a Merchant Account Provider. The setup of your Merchant Account through CardService International is included in your eCommerce Unix and eCommerce Windows hosting plan and you can sign up by visiting http://hosting.aplus.net/epro_merchjump.html.

Once you have established a Merchant Account with the Merchant Account Provider of your choice, you will need to submit the RPG Setup Information Sheet so that we can set up the RPG for your account.

NOTE: If you want to be able to process American Express and/or Discover cards as well as Visa and MasterCard, you will need to set up your Merchant Account accordingly.