Applying for Merchant Accounts and Payment Gateways

A merchant account and payment gateway enable you to accept credit cards as payment for the purchase of goods and services. There are different types of merchant accounts. For example, if you have a traditional "brick and mortar" store, you can get a retail merchant account. If you want to accept credit cards on your Web site, however, you need a specialized type of merchant account known as an "Internet-ready" merchant account.

Internet-ready merchant accounts enable you to handle Internet transactions in "real time" without any human intervention. Because the risk of credit card fraud is greater when you are accepting credit cards over the Internet, these specialized merchant accounts also provide additional checks that can significantly reduce the chance of credit card fraud. Once the transactions are processed, the merchant account provider transfers the funds received from the credit card transactions from your merchant account to your bank account.

Payment Gateways

A payment gateway is a service that connects your online store with your merchant account provider. This service reads the information from the order forms and translates that information for the merchant account. The payment gateway also verifies that the customer's credit card account has the necessary credit available for the purchase. You can obtain a payment gateway separately from your merchant account, however you may find it simpler to choose a merchant account provider that also offers a payment gateway.

Applying for  a Merchant Account

A number of companies offer Internet-ready merchant accounts. Hostway has selected Chase Merchant Services and PayPal Merchant Accounts as its preferred merchant account providers. When you sign up for an E-commerce plan with Hostway, you can sign up for an account with Chase at the same time. Of course, you are free to choose another merchant account provider.

If you already have a merchant account, you can use it with your Hostway E-commerce plan as long as it supports one of these payment methods. If you don't already have a merchant account and would like to order one, you apply for an account with Chase directly from within SiteControl.

To order a merchant account:

  1. In SiteControl, click E-commerce.

  2. In the E-commerce Manager, click Apply for Chase Merchant Account or Apply for PayPal's Website Payments Detailed information about merchant accounts and any special offers appears.

  3. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Apply.