I started a small computer service business a couple years ago with a partner and we needed to accept credit card payments. We signed up with a company which gave us "a great deal". And provided us with a machine at no cost which was great at the time. After we started operating we ran our first transaction and we were very excited.

It took about 3 days for the money to show up in our account and we wanted to talk to the company about this. Well we tried calling our sales rep with no luck. We contacted the phone # on our machine and waited on hold for 15 minutes only to talk to a voicemail. My partner and I figured that they would call us back but noone ever did. Anyways we made several more attempts and finally go through to someone 3 days later only to have them be very rude.

After a couple weeks we got numerous advertisements from other credit card processing companies offering even cheaper rates a free website and a $50 gift card. Seemed too good to be true, but we had to try since our current company had no service. So we cancelled the old company and got with the new one. Only to find out that they were just as bad. They werent even in California and had no local support at all! We ended up having a penalty for cancelling the old account which costed us over $800. Talk about a rip off ! Well since then I have done my homework and I found out a lot about this industry. So for all you who start a business and need to take credit cards pay attention to these tips.

-Dont fall for the Gimics if they are offering you something for free believe me you will end up paying for it one way or another.

-Find a company who has a local office and or dedicated representative for your account (its rare but you can find one)

-Dont focus on the cheapest rate at the end of the day you will end up paying about 3% after all the fees are calculated

-Dont think that if you deal with a bank like B of A or Well Fargo that you are going to be in better hands infact you may end up paying a lot more and good luck trying to get service if you need it.

-Do your homework, theres many different rates for different kinds of cards make sure you get all the rates from whatever company you are dealing with.

We eventually found a company that is based in Fremont, CA who have not only helped us with our merchant processing but they educated us about the industry. They have a good program and know how to service their clients. Look them up the name of the company is Prestige Business Solutions . I found them through google local and read their reviews. They have two websites www.prestige-solutions.com and www.prestigebizsolutions.com