Getting A Merchant Account
           By Lisa S. Lawless, Ph.D., Holistic Wisdom C.E.O.

Businesses that can accept credit cards on the Internet can provide their products and services to 300% more clients than those that do not. That's because over 95% of all on-line orders are processed with credit cards. The fact is, if your holistic business can't accept credit cards, you're forcing many of your customers to your competition or depending on what services you offer, and how rare they are, your customers may not to be able to access such a wonderful service at all.

There are many merchant account companies out there and you may feel overwhelmed when you start shopping for one. Not just because of the number of them... but because of all the confusing terminology they use.

You will also need to be careful of the "fly-by-night" merchant account companies that sell you a merchant account and then disappear or do not deliver what they promised you. Believe it or not, this unfortunately happens all the time, and happened to me. That's when I began to study and research merchant accounts so this would never happen to me or others I consult with.

To find out more about the merchant account I highly recommend, read further. Whatever you decide, make sure to be an educated consumer to protect your business or practice and your customers.

My personal recommendations-

I have had the lovely experience of shopping around for a merchant account and I have to tell you that it is really a daunting task, especially if you have never done it before. I went through three merchants accounts, each one a separate nightmare until I found the one I currently use, love, and highly recommend.

First let me tell you a bit about the nightmares so you know what obstacles to look out for. The first merchant account I opened was recommended to me through a "holistic company," whom I later found out was not. I was promised that I could have clients put their credit card information on my web site and purchase our products and services. What I found out after I had paid my $95 application fee was that I was supposed to take my client's credit card information over the phone and process that manually. That was not at all what I had wanted and I had been duped into believing that this company could offer me what I wanted when they could not.

The second problem I encountered occurred after I had paid another highly priced application fee and was assured that I could get all the services I wanted. When I found out I could not get the on-line shopping cart option I had wanted I was livid. I was told that the sales person who I had been working with was fired because he had been promising clients services they could not deliver!

Apparently this type of scam is quite common. There are so many different merchant account companies out there, all waiting to get you application fee. When they can't deliver the services you desired... well you either have to put up with it, or leave having lost your expensive application fee.

Do yourself a favor, learn from my horrible experiences with scam artists and go with a company that you can trust! I highly recommend Card Services International (CSI). You will be very satisfied with their services, and they deliver on everything they promise very promptly. They also very reasonable monthly fees. With the other merchant account companies, I had to wait up to two months to get everything set up before I even found out they could not deliver what I had requested. CSI had me up and going within one week.

Let me give you an example of what I mean. First, they waived my application fee for me, then after accidentally sending in a page of the application without signing it, they sent it over night to me by UPS and had enclosed a postage paid envelope to overnight back to him. All I had to do was call UPS and tell them to come pick it up! They even highlighted all the places I needed to sign, and had filled out all of the complicated forms for me with all the services that I wanted. Now that is what I call great customer service!

By the end of the week I had the ability to accept Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, and I could process checks on-line! I had access to my awesome shopping cart, and Mark made sure to call me a few times just to see how everything was going!