Merchant Account Question

IMO I recommend you getting a merchant account that is not a third party site because they will charge an arm and leg on per transaction. If you are a US citizen you wouldnt have much problems in getting one, however if you are a non US citizen, you would have to go through a few hoops. With that said I am sure there will be a few people who will mention offshore merchant accounts, you can typically expect high transaction fee from 5% only if you have payment history for more than 6 months.

If you are serious business, i recommend going all out, i.e (that is if you have already done the following steps,) incorporate an LLC, get a bank account, and then merchant account. Quite simple.

All the best

I also had bad experiences with paypal, since third party charged relatively high charges. Plus it is govern by AMLA requirements. What I did then is I apply for corporate account.

It depends on where you are located and what you sell.

Personally, I think it's a good idea to not limit your customers to how they want to pay you if possible. I have Paypal, Google Chekout and getting setting up my new merchant account. I am switching from USAepay I loved them I had both a instore cc set up and online. But, the problem is they were not integrated into any online shopping cart I wanted to use . I've switched to Authorize.net I can promise they integrate into pretty much any kind of web application you'd want to use. Worldpay is amazing! and I will be integrating them eventually because then I can accept payments from anywhere in the world, in any currency. I would have integrated them instead of authorize.net but their service forces your customers to leave your website and chekout on their secure site. So, I'll be adding this as a chekout feature for my international customers eventually.

If you want to be professional get your own merchant account.

Here's my affiliate page for Authorize.net Authorize.Net Application PM me if your in the US and want to get an instore and I'll give you the contact information for my account manager, not from Authorize.net if you have a physical business as well. She's really great.

Normally it will cost anywhere from 99.00 to 250.00 to set up your own merchant account and then a monthly fee for maintenance. You will pay much less in per transaction fee and interest rates over paypal (2.7%) or google checkout (2.9%)
Right now Authorize.net is having a special with no setup fee's and rates at 2.19% you should be able to negotiate that or get better rates after you prove your credit worthiness. Currently, Authorize.net is waiving the setup fee of 99.00 Authorize.Net Application

I also LOVE squareup.com! Authroize.net has a phone app so you can take payments from your phone if are a customer with them and get better rates than square or any other phone reader.

Paypal can really be lame. Simply plan they will hold money when ever they choose or not be very available to support you if needed. For my business the purchases go into the account and I never use it to buy anything else. I have another account for purchasing, Once I purchased a recurring thing at one time and could never get paypal to stop charging me! It was a mess, so keep things separate is my recommendations if you use them. Paypal also held one of my sales of $360 for 60 Days! I could have understood 30 days maybe but 60 days??? Paypal does do pretty much what ever it wants. So trust me and just plan that your funds (your money) could be held anytime for whatever reason. Google checkout is more expensive but I prefer it over paypal. They are very quick to put your money into your account and I've had no problems at all. My first sale they held for a couple days but now money is deposited sometimes the same day directly into my account. Very nice

Hope my experience and information helps you or anyone else reading this

Depending on your niche, Paypal may be a necessary evil. Yes there are many problems with Paypal but if you're in any type of information marketing, a large segment of your customer base pays with Paypal.

Don't get me wrong, it's VERY important to explore other payment processors AND merchant accounts but if you're selling digital products online it's hard to get away from Paypal.

Been using paypal for a long time now and had no problem using it. Just be cautious if a customer opens a case for a certain transaction. You need to act fast that way you can close it asap to avoid getting into trouble with paypal as well with your customer.