Abouts Eggs and Baskets :-)

[dave2007]

I am still at the deliberation stage of deciding which merchant account to use for soon to "go on the air" e-commerce site.

I would like to be able to accept not only credit cards but PayPal as well. I already opened an account with PayPal and, if I understand correctly, this will allow me to accept credit cards, through PayPal, [b]even from customers who don't have a PayPal account[/b].

My problem is that I don't want to put all eggs in one basket... I have read lots of horror stories about how PayPal treats merchants and although I personally never had any problem with PayPal (occasionally buying/selling stuff over eBay) for 6+ years, one never knows when it comes to serious business.

My question: Is it possible to have PayPal handle only PayPal payments, while all other credit card payments go through a "regular" merchant account?

If so, which merchant account provider would you recommend for handling very low priced items?

Thanks,
Dave

[stymiee]

[quote="dave2007"]Is it possible to have PayPal handle only PayPal payments, while all other credit card payments go through a "regular" merchant account?[/quote] Absolutely. Just make the user choose their form of payment and then provide them with the appropriate page to make that payment after the choice is made. It's a very common practice in ecommerce.

[quote="dave2007"]If so, which merchant account provider would you recommend for handling very low priced items?[/quote] Paypal. They have a micropayments option that is probably the best for low ticket items. Otherwise you'll need to find a provider with a low transaction fee. On ebay there are quite a few of them so I recommend checking that out.