Payment Options
Options for receiving payment from your buyers
There are many choices when it comes to ways to accept payments. The decision should be based on your needs and budget as well as ease of use for the customer. Your hosting company may offer a specific gateway or payment method, but here are the usual choices of payment methods.
Merchant Gateway
A merchant gateway offers many options for you to accept payments. Customers can pay directly through a secure payment gateway with a credit card and in some cases checks as well. Some also offer you the ability to accept payments via phone, fax and credit card machines for an additional fee. There is a monthly fee for this service and it is linked directly to your bank. The benefit of using a merchant gateway is that the money usually goes directly into your bank account within minutes of the transaction (this may vary by company). The downside is that sometimes they don't integrate well as well as the fees that are charged. Make sure you look for any "hidden" fees in the fine print if you choose to accept payment via this method.
Paypal
Paypal is quickly becoming the most used payment method because of it's ease of use and easy integration with any web site Paypal allows customers to pay via credit card without you having to have a merchant gateway. You set up a paypal account and link it to your web site (they provide instructions on how to do this) either via a shopping cart, or creating individual buy buttons as well as donate, gift certificates and recurring payments. The benefits to paypal are that you don't pay a monthly fee for the basic business services, you simply pay a per transaction fee based on the amount of the purchase. Many people prefer paypal because they can store multiple payment methods in their profile which eliminates the need to pull out their card and type all the information in. The downside to paypal vs. merchant gateway is that it does take several days for the payment to reach your bank account, and in the instance of a check payment, it may take up to 5 business days to clear. But it does afford the customer more than one way to pay, including a charge card offered by paypal!
There are many other choices, and again, it is up to you and your needs as to what will work best for you. You can google "online payment methods" to browse the many choices for your ecommerce site.
