Step 1-

Set a budget.  Although you may be concerned about reliability and ease of use, the very first thing you will likely have to decide is how much you can afford to pay for a credit card processing company.  Some companies will bill you only for gateway fees and monthly access to their credit server, while others will charge you upwards of $250 for startup and installation on top of monthly service fees.  Additionally, you may have to pay a monthly minimum as well as a small percentage of the cost of every credit card transaction that is processed at your store.  These are just a few of the fees that you may have to budget for when you contract with a credit card processing company so be prepared to pay out a significant amount of your increased income and decide how fast and streamlined you want your credit processing company to be.    Also, be aware while negotiating you will be penalized if you have bad credit, so you may have to look into special interest processing companies if you do. There is a reason why some stores still choose dialup, the cost!

Step 2-

Look at what your technical requirements are.  If you are a store based merchant, chances are your store will be compatible with most credit processing companies and it may just be a matter of subscribing to internet services if you previously have not.  However, if you are setting up a credit card processing company with an ecommerce website you particularly need to make sure that the processing company’s software is able to work alongside your shopping carts.  This process or program is generally called a gateway; before paying any fees make sure that your site will work with the credit card processing company because you generally will not get a refund if you are wrong.

Step 3-

Decide if you want to handle international credit sales or just those within your own country.  Fees go up extravagantly if you need a credit card processing company that is equipped to handle buyers from other countries.  If you do not expect to do much business outside of the country, you may be better off sticking to a domestic processing company and adding PayPal compatibility to your merchant website.   Along these same lines, you need to decide if you want to handle all credit cards, American Express, Diner’s Club, Mastercard, Visa, and Discover or just one or two of the larger companies because you pay more per each type of card you accept as well.

Step 4-

Take a close look at your own security.  You need to decide how protected you want your business to be from identity fraud cases or any other type of fraud.  Remember that if a customer has a bad experience it only takes one loud squeaky wheel to create distrust for your website on the web.  If a customer has a bad experience they will blame your website not the credit processing company.  Therefore, you need to decide if you want real time processing, address verification, CVV2 protection, and many other extra steps.  Of course, each one costs an extra fee typically so look into any package deals you may be able to secure.

Step 5-

Make sure that the credit card processing company has good technical support.  Surprisingly enough, most people forget that their business is likely going to need a strong help and support team with their credit card transactions.  Since an inability to take credit could shut your store down for the day, you need to make sure that you choose a processing company you can easily contact 24/7 and not just one that provides you with a fax number.  If you are highly concerned, you may even look into a live online chat function you can access any time you need to troubleshoot for fast interaction and quick solutions.