Why should I accept credit cards?
Millions of cards are carried in the U.S. by people who take their cards wherever they go - to the mall, on vacation, to the post office, out to eat, to the dentist, and surfing the Internet. These cosumers enjoy the convenience, the flexibility, and the security that credit cards offer.
How can I start to accept credit cards from my customers?
Ethos Payments allows almost any merchant that has not had a prior termination for wrongful activities to accept credit cards. For years, card acceptance has been expected at places like retail stores, hotels, restaurants and airlines. But today, consumers expect to be able to use their cards for a much broader range of products and services, including healthcare services, groceries, tuition payments, movie tickets and recurring payments such as cable or utility bills. And the list will only continue to grow.
As a result, businesses who accept cards are not only gaining customers, they are gaining more loyal customers and customers spend more. In addition, these merchants and service providers gaining real bottom line benefits for their business.
How does accepting credit cards mean more business?
Credit cards acceptance offers your business a wide range of benefits in terms of reduced operating costs and increased profitability, including:
• Increased Sales - Consumers can take advantage of specials, stock-up on the products and services they need most, and in the case of health care services, obtain treatment when it's needed.Plus, we offer specific programs and materials targeted exclusively for your industry.
• Faster Payment - With credit card transactions, you receive payment within 24-72 hours, improving your cash flow.
• Reduced Costs - You can save time on the management of billing, sending statements and tracking receivables, reducing your overhead and related expenses.
• Fewer Processing Problems - Reducing the number of checks you take in diminishes the likelihood of problems resulting from processing checks. So you'll avoid redeposit fees and the cost of processing additional transactions.
• Improved Customer Service - Consumers enjoy the speed, convenience and payment flexibility that cards provide. Card acceptance lets you accommodate these consumers and offer increased payment options with monthly, quarterly or semiannual billings.
What about electronic commerce?
The Internet is certainly the future of shopping, and it's here today. We offer Authorize.Net, Accurate Payments, Verisign, Chargeback Guardian and we are compatible with ALL shopping cart and e-commerce solutions. We are also compatible with just about ANY payment gateway system available. So if you're stuck in some bundled e-commerce package, you can still get the lowest price merchant account here.
How do Internet credit card transactions work?
There are two ways a web-based merchant can accept credit cards from their customers: Live Real-Time payments and Non-Real-Time.
1. Customer visits your website, shops, and wants to pay with a credit card. Customer enters in the credit card information.!
2. Based on the type of merchant account the merchant has, Real-Time or non-Real-Time, the card information can flow one of two ways.
• Real-Time: The card information flows to the processing center/payment gateway.3. The processor/bank verifies the card information and either approves or declines the cardholder.
• Non-Real-Time: The merchant captures the credit card information via a secured form and then manually enters in the card information to the processing center/payment gateway.
4. If the cardholder is approved, the amount is moved from the cardholder's bank to the merchant's processing bank. The merchant's processing bank then moves the money to the merchant's local checking account. The transaction is complete.
