Process for opening an e-commerce site

I am not really sure if I understand your question.  Do they not allow you to open a merchant account because you are in a third world country or is it because you work with a private company?

There are some instances in which you can get a real merchant account if you have a United States Bank account & a United Stated address.  

I do not think 2CO will support a site in which onine credits are used though.  I remember seeing that at one point, but 2CO's site is so badly created - it is very difficult to locate their AUP.  This is something that you want to make sure you are in compliance with first before signing up.  Otherwise, you run the risk of having your account frozen - maybe up to six months

-Corey

True True True..... I really think there should be a standard for ecommerce transactions, like a standard internet currency. There is so many issues with regards to ecommerce payments and multi currencies and all. Like for example in South Africa's banking model, multi currency is not supported which makes totaly no sense at all for ecommerce, where it a global thing and in South Africa, you will have to forced to trade in ZAR (South African Rands), which consequently forced people in South Africa to go to other foreign company's for multi currency or just even to trade in dollars.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Wonderfull comments indeed. Appreciated, definitely.

To make things clearer, Corey, I am not allowed to create a merchant account because I'm a private company. If I were government, it would have been easy. And without a merchant account, the company, <a href="http://www.comtrust.ae">comtrust</a>, will not provided me with the e-payment facility. They're quite cheap too.

Have yous ever dealt with Yahoo store? Does it offer anything like that?

Cheers.

Pardon the a tag. My mistake.

Wow... Amazing.. I think I need to study these gateways one by one. Cool United States... I don't really know why these banks do not open merchant accounts...

Well banks are not really in the processing business.  A lof of banks in the United States outsource it to other companies. Chase has a partnership with First Data.  So Chase can process the CCs as well.

-Corey

Try Charge.com, they have many services.

www.charge.com is a reseller for Cardservices International basically.  A lot of resellers for Cardservice can offer the same thing

-Corey

Upon study, and consulting with my team, we believe opening a merchant account is the best choice and then subscribing to a payment gateway.

Correcy me if I'm wrong, but an online merchant account is like a bank account for online transactions right? Would it be insured? if the bank or the holding institute goes bankrupt or something? Like I have an account with a brokage and they state that my money is insured up to 500,000 USD... or something like backed up by the federal reserve.

Also, I noticed something called international merchant account... If I'm a non-US citizen, can I open a normal or do I need to open an International Merchant account?

Am I thinking right?

It depends. There are some processors that will allow you to open up a merchant account in the United States if you have at least a United States bank account and a United States address.   But there are also usually limitations (like $10,000 processing a month, and the discount rate might be a bit higher (3.5%)).  In most cases, the answer is yes, but there are always exceptions.

As far as the processing / online transactions,  That is a different,  a lot more complicated.  Look at what happened with Paysystems.  They were a third party process & then they decided they wanted to offer merchant accounts (for the United States & the UK).  And then all of a sudden, Paysystems said no more third party accounts.  A lot of them still have not receive their money.  Your money for a merchant account is held in a bank.  It is your money.  For example, Cardservice International is a registered service provider for the following FDIC-insured banks: First Financial Bank, Denver, CO and Wells Fargo Bank.  So this is where your money is held until they deposit it into your account.  Cardservice has been in business since 1988 & they are owned by First Data - a company that has been around for over 100 years.  No worries there about them going bankrupt

-Corey

I see, Corey. So if I wanted to convince my colleagues of a solution, I can tell them that Cardservice is a registered service provider for the following FDIC-insured banks: First national bank, Denver, CO and Wells Fargo Bank. And all money from payments is held in one of those banks until they deposit it into our account (which has to be a bank account in the united states? or anywhere in the world? or like a bank such as H.S.B.C. which tells you that your bank account is global?)
And that Cardservice has been in business since 1988 and they are owned by First Data which has been around for over 100 years - so the chances of them being bankrupt is almost nothing.

Can you tell where I am confused? :)

For Cardservice, assuming you are not in the United States, you do need a United States bank account and a United States address.  The money is usually deposited aftera  5 day ACH hold (if you are not in the United States).  This is to protect Cardservice.  And once again, this is not not the case for U.S. citizens.   I am not certain about HSBC (I usually do not handle the international clients that much), but I am thinking (assuming) that as long as CSI can deposit the money into a U.S. bank account, it would be fine.  

-Corey

Thanks Corey. I appreciate your time and input.