Merchant Account--Introduction

[laciemn1]

I decided to make this as sort of a greeting thread since it's my first post. I've been reading the site for around a year off and on but I never bothered with the forum. I am Lacie, from North Carolina USA. 18 years old, I love my friends, finished high school, probably not going to college...

So..here's my story. A few months ago(before my 18th birthday), I decided I wanted to start an online jewelry business. Building a business has been my dream since I was around 14...people would always ask me what I wanted to do, but I didn't have the idea until then.

I made up little plans for advertising, printed them out, planned out each month of my business, decided where I would order from, what I would order etc. Pretty much what I'm saying is, I'm freaking ready to go! But I have to wait for my debit card to come in to order my inventory and get my website. It's so annoying having to fill out all these forms and take them places like The Chamber of Commerce, The library(for using their fax machines) etc because I have NO car and I have to wait on relatives and friends to take me where I need to go.

I'm pretty much frustrated because nothing is ever as simple as it seems! All these tiny problems keep dragging me down and making things seem impossible! Like I thought I was ready, I've decided on what shopping cart program I wanted to use, found out how I would install it, decided on my webhost.

Then there's the whole thing where I HAVE to have a merchant account for gateway credit card processing. I don't have bad credit..but I don't have ANY credit at all! I've never had any bill in my name, I've always just paid it directly to my mom. I HATE the waiting game! I am an extremely optimistic person, I've prayed to God for my success, but I just feel there's nothing I can do about my credit!

So my question is, is there ANY way I can get a merchant account without good credit? Any tips, advice, from you more experienced people? One thing about my personality is that I tend to stress myself and sometimes just a few words from someone who knows what they're talking about helps a ton. Thanks in advance.

[AndrewJ]

You don't need a real merchant account to start off. Use a third party payment processor such as 2Checkout.com — Merchant Account / Credit Card Processing Alternative , Merchant account alternative: CCNow and/or www.Paypal.com

Once you have some trading history then apply for a merchant account.

Andrew

[AndrewJ]

Lacie what shopping cart system have you chosen? They should provide you with a list a of payment processors which will integrate with the cart.

Andrew

[laciemn1]

Originally Posted by AndrewJ

Lacie what shopping cart system have you chosen? They should provide you with a list a of payment processors which will integrate with the cart.

Andrew

I think I'm probably going to use Agora, they are a free open-source shopping cart, I didn't get any lists of payment processors but I will look closer.

An update, today I called my bank and asked about the merchant account thing and I have a meeting with this guy who says he'll be able to get me one with no credit--he said he wouldn't accept bad credit but I still may be able to do it.

The thing is, when I was talking to this guy on the phone, I was trying to explain the whole gateway versus processor things but I couldn't explain what I meant very well so I think I'm going to print out some information to bring with me. I'm hoping to set something up that doesn't take the customer outside of my site--like to paypal or google or whatever.

I've been reading about merchant accounts(wikipediaa) and I see these things called "minimum monthly fees" and a lot of them are around $15-20. I was wondering what exactly this means, is it just that it's going to cost me another $15/month? My website and SSL will be $15/month so that's kind of annoying butI guess I can deal with it.