Free Business Internet Merchant Account

An internet merchant account is a special type of bank account that a business requires before it is allowed to accept credit card payments directly. The internet merchant account (IMA) is separate to the normal business bank account, and the bank providing the IMA doesn’t have to be the same bank as the normal bank account. Unfortunately the providers of the IMAs charge not only a percentage sales fee, but also a setup fee, which sometimes can be quite hefty! This article provides a description of what you can do to avoid having to pay the internet merchant account setup fees and reduce the transaction fees…

Transaction fees with Internet Merchant Accounts depend on the type and scale of your business - when reviewing the account, you can negotiate with the bank to try and lower these fees, as they aren’t set in stone. There are a variety of IMA banks in the UK, these are the big five:

• Barclays
• Natwest Streamline
• Bank of Scotland
• HSBC  
• Lloyds TSB

In my opinion Natwest and Barclays are two of the best providers for internet merchant accounts, both are easy and professional to deal with, and offer good value IMA services. If you are in the UK and haven’t yet got an IMA then you would be well-advised to become a member of the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) - at a cost of just £100 this provides you with a lot of benefits which are detailed on their website.

Once you are a member of the FSB, you qualify with a reduction in internet merchant account application fees from Natwest from £250 to absolutely nothing. If you weren’t already a FSB member, then at worst case the merchant account has cost you £100, but if you are already a member of the FSB then it won’t cost you a penny. Additionally, they will reduce the transaction fees for you as a result of being an FSB member. Natwest’s contact number is 0800 010 166.

Okay, now what? Once you’ve got an internet merchant account you’re going to need a payment processor, such as Worldpay, Authorize.net and SecureHosting - these are the people that actually process the card details, whilst the IMA is where the funds are deposited. Generally SecureHosting is one of the best value payment processors around and should certainly be in your shortlist.

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Tags: free internet merchant account, application fee, natwest