Third party credit card processors allow you to accept credit
cards without an Internet merchant account. With most third party
credit card processors all you have to do is sign-up and you're
ready to accept credit cards on your website.
If you want your business to be a success, you have to accept credit
cards. Statistics showed that right after starting to accept credit
cards, the sales can increase by as much as 400%. This is the real
potential of your business, so, why waste it?
Because this site aims to help "just starting" businesses,
I only will discuss about third party credit card processors because
they don't require an Internet merchant account, they are cheap
and easy to use. And that's their beauty!
When a business grows, purchasing a merchant account has to be
considered, but until that time, third party credit card processors
are, usually, the optimum solution because they are cheaper as long
as the total monthly value of the sales is low (usually under $1000).
One of the best things that you can get from these companies is
the ability to run an affiliate program for your own business, because
it will help you promote your site. That's why I preferred those
third party credit card processors which provide the tools that
you need to manage an affiliate program.
The list below includes the companies that I find to be the best.
The features, the trustworthiness, the cost and the availability
of the service in as many countries as possible were the main criteria
I used in coming-up with this list.
I "calculated" the quality of the services by reading
what other people, who have used these companies, said about them.
Now let me give you a list with some of the most popular third
party credit card processors (the order is not relevant):
Paypal.com
- one of the most popular third party credit card processors. Very
low charges. Accepts users from developed countries only, but they're
slowly expanding the list of accepted countries.
Propay.com
- This third party credit card processor is Paypal's most powerful
competitor. This service is available for US citizens only.
Clickbank.com
- I've read a lot about this third party credit card processor in
articles and e-books. They became so well know that almost every
website that talks about third party credit card processors lists
them as one of the favorites. The best thing about this company's
service is the built-in affiliate program. They will not only track
and pay your affiliates, but since they already have over 100.000
registered affiliates, you might have quite a few affiliates in
a very short period of time.
CCBill.com
- A complete service for intangible products. It has a built-in
referral program. It tracks and pays the affiliates for you.
Globill-systems.com
- They provide a cheap credit card acceptance service.
Verotel.com
- Deals with you only if you're selling intangible products. They
allow you to accept credit cards, checks, direct debit, telephone
billing and per minute billing. They also provide you with a referral
program.
CCNow - A
great third party credit card processing service if you are selling
tangible products. They do not offer the affiliate system.
Regsoft.com
- Specialized reseller - informational products (including software).
Basically it acts like a third party credit card processor. I think
they can be great in some situations. Affiliate program included.
Kagi.com -
They are one of the most respected third party credit card processors.
I find their website rather confusing, but I heard their services
are quite good. They've been around for quite some time now.
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