Many businesses start off on the high-street or as mail order companies, and to accept credit and debit cards they must have a merchant facility with a bank (this is what we call being bank acquired). When the time comes that you want to accept cards online you must either have an online merchant account set-up, or connect your current merchant facility with us. We then simply provide the payment gateway...

How it works

Every time someone makes an online purchase you are charged a standard transaction fee (from your bank) and an online transaction fee (from us). The two are bolted together to make the total amount charged.

For example you may have agreed an off-line fee with your bank of 1.5% per transaction. We then charge 1% per online transaction, bringing the total amount to 2.5% (per transaction).

Settlement Period

This is the same as your current arrangement.

For our normal merchant accounts we would have a settlement period of either 5 days with a 5% rolling reserve, or 28 days with no reserve. However because your bank is taking all the risk, the settlement period is the same as your current arrangement.

What else should I know

You may need to contact your bank to ask them to switch on the ability to allow online payments. This should not cost anything extra and should be easy enough. However knowing banks, you may want to check with them first!

When you were set-up with your bank to accept credit and debit cards you would have been supplied with a merchant ID number. When you apply with us you will need to supply you merchant number during the application.

This can be done with any bank. However your business of incorporation and bank account must be in the same country. This is due to strict money laundering rules.

Pricing and costs

Below are the prices and costs for bank acquired merchants. Remember that these are on top of what your bank charges you.

If you are not bank acquired and require one of our full merchant accounts then please click here for more information on pricing and terms.