Retail Merchant Account vs. E-Commerce Website

This is a question that merchants ask us at UniBul with an ever increasing frequency. It is perfectly understandable why they would like to use the retail merchant accounts that they already have and not have to go through the hassle of establishing a separate PC based credit card processing service. Yet, per Visa and MasterCard regulations, merchants need to set up separate accounts for each one of their businesses. The reasoning behind this requirement is that different industries present different levels of processing risk. In case of a problem with a rolled-up solution, both businesses will suffer if the account is suspended, whereas, with separate credit card payment processing services, only the problematic account will be affected. The risk is especially high with eCommerce merchant accounts, because internet transactions generate the vast majority of credit card fraud.

Your web-based processing solution will need to be compliant with the latest Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards that were developed in a collaborative effort by all major Credit Card Companies and Associations. We have explained the main points of the compliance process elsewhere in this blog. All major processors offer eCommerce gateways that are fully compliant.

With that in mind, your best course of action would be to contact your current manual credit card processing provider and request a quote for an internet merchant account. A good idea would be to also request quotes from several other processors and compare the terms. You may end up getting a better pricing for your brick-and-mortar store in the process.