US Merchant Accounts

The second way is to get your own merchant accounts. Total Merchant Accounts can help you do this. However, you must realize that there are a few requirements:

1. If you are a US citizen (even though you may live outside the country) it will cost you about $40 a month to lease the software to charge the credit cards... that is it! The only other requirement is that your business is incorporated or registered in the US. If it isn't, they can set up your business as a Nevada Corporation for about $500 (this can all be done within a couple of days).
   
   
2. If you are NOT a US citizen you will be required to buy the software, not lease it at $40 a month. This will cost you $995 to buy it (as compared to leasing it for $40 a month if you were a US citizen). Another requirement is that your business must be registered in the US. If it isn't, they can get you set up as a Nevada Corporation for about $500 (this can be done within a couple of days). The last requirement is that because you are not a US citizen, you will have to put a "good-faith" deposit of 5% of your 6 months expected revenue in the account. This is fully refundable after 6 months (the money is still yours it is just held by them for a 6 month probationary period), but it is required so that you don't just start off with nothing, charge a lot of credit cards, and then disappear. I am sure you can understand where they are coming from.

In either case, the broker we deal with is very, very good. Most brokers will not allow non-US people to have merchant accounts, but the broker we deal with will. They also have great discount rates (this is the percentage charge you for each credit card transaction). Their discount rate is 2.0 - 3.0 percent depending on the business you have. This is an incredible rate for mail-order/Internet businesses, as many brokers will charge as much as 5% because these are considered "high-risk".

Go to the following page and fill out the application as best you can. The merchant account people will call you back within 48 hours to go over the details and figure out what fits your situation best. Don't worry about filling out every area in the form as it is to only get an idea of how you are set up so they can go over what is the best way for you company to get merchant credit card accounts. Click here for that webpage.