How to Accept Credit, Debit and PayPal Payments Online

Establish Criteria for a Credit Card Processing Service
1. Be certain that your merchant credit card gateway accepts all major credit cards, including Mastercard, Visa, American Express and Discover.
2. Make sure all accounts that you establish for accepting payments integrate seamlessly with your Shopping Cart service and your accounting program. Some payment gateways, including PayPal, offer free shopping cart functionality.
3. Insist on a service that is transparent and fast. Fast for your customers, so that they can get quick approval for their transactions with you. Fast for you, so that you can view balances and transactions at any time and move money into your checking account without delay.
Establish Accounts to Accept Payments Online
4. Visit PayPal's 'Choose Account Type' page and sign up for a PayPal Business Account (see Resources below). If you are located in the United States, intend to be an active seller and want to accept credit cards as well as PayPal payments, select website 'Payments Standard,' which charges nothing to open an account, withdraw funds, add funds or send funds. There are no monthly fees. Fees are charged as a percentage of each credit card or PayPal transaction and are generally lower than those available through bank based merchant accounts.
5. Review PayPal's terms for credit card processing to see if it meets your business needs. Since PayPal began providing credit and debit card merchant account processing other vendors for such services have ceased operations. PayPal will allow you to accept payment via Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover credit or debit cards, either on PayPal's site or on your own website, at rates that compare favorably with competitors.
6. Shop for alternatives to PayPal among other vendors such as Charge.com, Cardservice International, SecureNetShop and ProPay.