4 Steps to Allow You to Begin Accepting Credit Card Payments

As a business owner, you are going to need to embrace the digital age. This means you will need to be sure you are accepting credit and debit card payments in order to make purchasing easier for your clientele. When beginning to implement a card processing plan, you may be overwhelmed with your options. Included here are a few steps you will need to take to begin accepting credit cards in your business.

Create a Merchant Account

One of the first steps in accepting credit card payments is to create a merchant account. This means you will need to have an account specifically set-up to receive payments from your business and it must be separate from your personal account. Your merchant account will be the one responsible for processing payments and working between your bank and credit card processor.

credit cards

Install a Point-of-Sale Terminal

Many operations will have a POS system integrated as their main cash register. If you need to install hookups to this system in order to process cards, make sure they are all PCI compliant. This means the hardware and software must comply to all industry security standards for payment cards.

If installing a full POS system seems like too much work, you may be able to integrate payment methods using a phone or Ipad. There are countless card readers that can be purchased fairly cheaply and allow you to begin processing cards. However, this is usually a band-aid solution and will result in you needing to upgrade if your business is really growing.

Utilize the Internet

Some business owners find it to be too much of a hassle to install card readers within their establishment. If you find this to be the case, you may benefit from a “card-not-present” payment method. This means you can transform your computer into a “virtual terminal” to process the card using its numbers rather than its physical swipe pad.

If you wish to use your computer as a virtual terminal with the card present, you can use a USB card swiper to process transactions. This means that by simply plugging the USB card reader into your computer’s port, you can be collecting payment online as easily as busting out your laptop.

Software

Lastly, you will need to implement a software that processes all card transactions for you and monitors payments. This means it will ensure your business collects all payments and no cards are coming back cancelled or voided. Your inventory and revenue will also benefit from the careful monitoring of this service. When shopping for vendors who will process your cards, be sure to carefully consider what percentage of each payment they collect and how easy to use their system is.

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