Merchant Account, Gateway at the Same Time?
A common questions amongst new online merchants is where do you get your payment gateway from? Do you go straight to Authorize.net? Or do you get it from your merchant account provider?
You typically will get both in one place but this is not necessarily how it has to be done. Authorize.net can only be established through resellers and most resellers are also merchant account providers. So, you will find that whatever merchant account provider you chose will most likely also be able to establish your Authorize.net gateway for you. This way is the most common and the easies way to do it.
However, it is possible that you can get your payment gateway from one provider and merchant account from another. But you will find besides the fact that this is more work for you, you will also run into resistance from Authorize.net resellers and merchant account providers who want to sell you both services and not have another provider taking “a piece of the pie”. It is best to get both services from the same provider as the pricing for an Authorize.net gateway is virtually the same from most of their resellers.