Take Credit Cards

A credit card is a card that identifies its owner as one who is entitled to credit when purchasing goods or services from certain establishments. You can take credit cards from your customers if you have an online merchant account and processing gateway system set up for your ecommerce web site. Even brick and mortar companies can take credit cards from customers; however they do not require payment gateway but need to have merchant account. Having a merchant account system in place will ultimately increase your sales volume because this provides convenience and flexibility for your customers.

When a credit card is used, the retailer records the name and account number of the purchaser and the amount of the sale, and forwards this record to the credit card billing office. At intervals, the billing office sends a statement to the card holder listing all the charged purchases and requesting payment immediately or in installments. The billing office reimburses the retailer directly. The amount is deposited in the merchant account of the retailer.

Most of the work involved in credit card operations is now handled by computers. Charges for the use of a credit card are sometimes paid directly by the card holder. Credit card enables the buyers to make purchases even when they don’t have cash. Thus not taking credit card from the customer will make your customers to shift to competitors who accept credit card from them. In today’s hi-tech economy most payments are made through credit cards. For online merchants taking credit card is the most secured way of accepting payment.