In case you have an online business selling goods or services it is extremely important that you can accept payment via various methods. Not all customers can pay through PayPal while mailing a check may take too long for some occasions. Some customers may not prefer to pay using a credit card via PayPal while wire transfer may not be an option for others. As an online entrepreneur, it is important that you do not lose any customer because you cannot accept payment in a certain form.

While PayPal is widely used, it is also a good idea to tie up with an online credit card processing company so that you can start accepting credit card payments on your site itself. This combination of PayPal with credit cards will cover nearly all prospective customers - so you do not have to worry about losing customers.

To start off, you will need to sign up with the credit card processing company as a merchant. If you use a shopping cart, cross verify that the payment processor software is compatible with the shopping cart in use. Your account at the processing company is usually tied up to your bank account so that money can be moved into your account whenever you make a sale. You could also check with your hosting provider since they usually have tie ups with online credit card processing companies.

The charges applicable usually have two components - monthly fixed charge plus the transaction based charges. In addition, some companies could also charge you for the first time setup.

The following factors must be factored while finalising the credit card processor:

1. The types of cards the processor accepts
2. The setup charges, if any
3. Transaction charges
4. Support mechanism
5. Processor terminals rentals, if any
6. Compatibility with your shopping cart software
7. Reputation of the company