How to open a merchant account.

The merchants have to settle up an agreement with a bank for the processing credit card payments. According to this agreement, merchants are obligated to follow the rules established by the credit card associations, which are the networks of banks operating with specific types of credit cards. A merchant account can be direct and sponsored. Sponsored accounts mean that a merchant establishes a merchant account in a bank with the help of the third party typically called an aggregator. One way or another, a merchant account serves to accumulate the money from the financial transactions with the customers. Another important procedure for the merchants who wish to process electronic payments is an establishment of the credit cards processing method. There are different methods of processing the transactions between a customer’s credit card and merchant account. One of them is a credit card terminal, which is a device enabling the usage of a credit card. At every credit card terminal it is required to validate the ownership of a card with a PIN-code. One more credit card processing method is an automated response unit, which allows voice authorization through a mobile phone. And finally, the third method of credit card processing is used for online financial transactions. It is called a merchant account payment gateway. A merchant account payment gateway is equivalent to a terminal at every retailing outlet. The merchant account payment gateway is a service provided for a merchant by a company separate from one of the merchant accounts providers (the bank). The main purpose of the merchant account payment gateway providers is to ensure the link between a customer, a merchant and a bank. Payment gateway providers secure the payments with the 3d secure protocol, manage the traffic between the merchant account and the merchant account payment gateway, and manage the currency support of every merchant account payment gateway.