Once payment has been taken both you and the customer receive an email detailing the transaction.

Traditionally, to be allowed to accept credit cards you must be granted Merchant Status by a major bank and obtain a Merchant ID from them.

The merchant account verifies credit card and customer information. This includes checking to see if the details supplied are correct (address, card number etc.) and if the card has been reported stolen, or has enough funds.

All major high street banks have what is known as an acquiring bank e.g. NatWest has 'Streamline', LloydsTSB has 'Cardnet', Barclays has 'Barclays Merchant Services', HSBC has 'HSBC Merchant Services' and so on.

There are obviously costs involved - typically the bank will include setup charges, monthly or annual fees, monthly charge for a virtual terminal for you to process card details over the phone. You will also be charged a percentage of each transaction which they process, you may have a minimum monthly volume of business imposed, and in some cases you will have to provide a substantial bond or deposit as extra security.

To accept payments through your website you will also need a secure payment gateway.

A payment gateway is separate and acts as an intermediary between your website and all the banking systems. This is a seamless process and your customer does not interact with the gateway. The credit card and customer details are submitted via the gateway, which securely sends the information through the relevant financial networks to the merchant account.

Because you need both a merchant account and a payment gateway to process payments online, people often have to find these seperately. This means you may well end up paying two lots of set-up charges, monthly charges, and, worst of all, two lots of fees on every transaction.

Let Web Merchant Services take care of this for you!

As previously stated Web-Merchant has brought together the elements needed to obtain merchant status allowing your business to accept credit card orders from your customers. We have designed the application process to be as simple as possible, with 95% of all applications being accepted

What do I need to do now and what's the process?

What you need to do now is decide which account is best for you. Either the Merchant Account + Gateway Solution 1 or 2, High-Risk Merchant account or the Adult Account. Each account has pros and cons depending on your business, country of incorporation and financial situation so please compare products and services before applying

Once you have decided which account is best for you simply go to the relevant application page and 'Apply'.

What happens next?

To sign up please complete the online application form. Once you have completed the online application you will receive an email with the relevant documentation. For help in understanding the documents and for information on how to complete them, please click here

To sign up for High-Risk Merchant Account + Gateway, please complete the online application form. When you apply online you will receive an email normally within 1 - 2 business days informing you if you have passed the initial stage or not. If so, you will receive an email with a list of supporting documents to return. Once all forms and supporting documents have been received, your application will be assessed, then you will be contacted with a decision. You will also be contacted if any questions regarding your application arise

Once the merchant account application has been received and approved, the account can be up and running in less than 48 hours. If there are problems with the paperwork submitted, such as incomplete data or inconsistencies, those issues will delay account approval. During busy periods the application process may take 5 days (from the time of receiving your documents).