How Do We Make Our Merchant Account Recommendations?

In order to accept credit cards online, most internet business owners or founders will surf the net looking for companies who will grant the facility fast and at a competitive price.

The problem I have with this method is that this is exactly the way I went when I set up my first website in 1997 to sell computers online.

I was on a tight budget but also needed to accept credit cards online as soon as possible after launch for cash-flow purposes.

I actually ended up wasting a month of my life and literally hundreds of dollars with different applications.

And this is why I set up this site - Merchant Account Forum - to try to help others like you, looking to accept credit cards online to make a sensible, long-term decision based on the experience of myself, my friends and colleagues and others that I speak to regularly before featuring any product or company on this site.

You may be surprised, therefore, even disappointed at the small number of merchant accounts featured on this site.

Is this because we don't do our research very well? No, it's rather that, incase you weren't aware, we're fast becoming one of the net's most visited sites on the subject of accepting credit cards online.

If we want to be here this time next year, even bigger and better than today, we need to make absolutely certain that our recommendations are 100% on target. After all, what would it do to our reputation if we recommended fraudsters who took your money and ran?

So far, whilst not the biggest site on the net, we've concentrated more on integrity and quality than the size, and the feedback from reviewers and visitors has been nothing short of amazing. Traffic too is increasing solidly each and every month.

So, for those who value well-researched information and advice on one of the most important decisions of setting up an online business, here is how we select our merchant account recommendations.

Not only do we run websites outside of Merchant Account Forum, but we also build them for others on a freelance basis. We use these websites, together with literally hours of research and interviews to find what we think seem the best options for you to accept credit cards online.

Instant approval merchant accounts, low cost merchant accounts, high risk merchant accounts and so on.

Once we have our list of potentials, we then gather a list of businesses already using each merchant account we're looking at and email them for their honest, unbiased opinions. It's fair to say that in general online business owners are only too happy to discuss who they use to accept credit cards.

When we've narrowed it down even further based on the experiences of existing clients, and as long as it's legal for us to do so, we apply for an account for ourselves or one of our clients.

We test them out. Play around. Ask questions. Keep notes on the speed of the customer service. We wait for the checks to turn up in a timely manner and so on and so forth until we really are left with what experience - both ours and that of others, has shown to be the best in it's field.

Only then do we feel comfortable adding it to this site.

So I hope you see my point of view. The recommendations may be fewer than other sites but the information on Merchant Account Forum really is the best source of information anywhere on how to accept credit cards online.

I wish you the best of luck with your search, and as I say on the Merchant Account Forum homepage, if you have any questions at all, please don't hesitate to contact us.